Course of Fate
by Fye R Fly
Summary: Ginny Weasley and Draco Malfoy have always been enemies, until one day a promise made by their grandparents throws them together... Reviews welcome :
1. Wizard Honor

Disclaimer: All the characters (With the exception of one or two) in this story belong to J.K Rowling.

Chapter 1

Draco Malfoy leaned back in the chair, closing his eyes, wondering for the hundredth time that day why all chairs in Malfoy Manor had to be made out of leather, that, the near hundred degree heat, and the heavy dress robes his father was forcing him to wear, only made him sweat more. Kicking a footstool over next to the chair, he put his feet up and crossed his arms over his stomach, giving into the few minutes of relaxation he had before his father would come find him and give him something productive to do.

The summer had been long, boring, and hot so far, with his father coming up with endless lists of spells, and charms, and other things he needed to know before the school year started, claiming that this year his marks should be better than the mudblood's. He never actually referred to Hermione Granger by name, but Draco knew that was whom he was talking about. To be perfectly honest, although he didn't like being shown up in class, he had other things on his mind normally, and it didn't bother him.

Under most circumstances, he would wave away his father's harsh criticism with a sarcastic comment, a rolling of the eyes, or simply leaving the room. Although this summer he'd just learned to tune his father out, pretending to listen to him drone on, half heartedly answering questions, and letting his mind wander to something worthwhile. He was just considering calling in the house elf to get him a glass of water when he felt something cast a shadow over his chair, blocking out the hot overhead lights. Draco opened one eye and sighed, seeing the tall figure of his father looming over him.

"Later," he replied without even waiting to hear what his father had to say. He closed his eyes again, and proceeded to ignore the man standing next to him.

Lucius Malfoy scowled, "I will not have you talking to me like that." Frowning, he muttered something, sending the chair toppling over and Draco following after it. Draco's head hit the edge of the desk, cutting him at the temple, and blood started to trickle down the side of his face. Glaring at his father he stood up and wiped off his robes, not acknowledging the cut. "Now I don't remember giving you leave to rest," Lucius snapped, his eyes flashing as he glared into his son's own, the defiance he saw in them only making him angrier, "We have some very important people coming over for dinner tonight, now go get ready. Tell your mother to as well; I'll deal with you later." He turned his back on him and said icily, "And pick up that chair on the way out."

Draco leaned down and picked up the chair, setting it down with a loud thud, and smirked in satisfaction as he saw his father's shoulders tense with anger. He turned and left the room, shutting the door particularly hard after him, not caring that it would probably give him a more severe punishment later that evening. He climbed the rather large marble staircase up to his room, ignoring the family portraits on the walls, people he didn't know who chatted and sent disturbing looks his way when he passed. Draco shrugged them off and went up to his mother's room and knocked on the door, and when she called for him to come in, he leaned against the doorframe, hands in his pockets, "Father said to tell you to be ready for dinner," he drawled in a bored tone.

Narcissa, Draco's mother, a tall and slender lady with blonde hair that ran down her back in waves, was sitting in front of a mirror at the far left, her back to the door, but Draco could see her reflection in the mirror in front of her and saw her nod. "Alright." She turned to look at him and frowned when she saw the blood slowly dripping down his cheek, "Draco what happened?" She frowned walking over to him.

"Oh it's nothing," he said nonchalantly and in the same drawl as before, "Just a little incident, stupid house elves always messing up everything." He shrugged, "It's nothing to worry about; it'll heal."

She frowned slightly, knowing full well what had happened, but said nothing out loud. She pulled her wand out of her robes and ran it over the cut slightly, murmuring something, and a second later the cut had healed itself. "There you go, now go get dressed." She said and waved her hand dismissing Draco.

Draco nodded, leaving the room without even murmuring a word of thanks, and walked down to his room shutting the door behind him. Once inside he shed the heavy dress robes and laid them across the end of the big, four post mahogany bed. Each post had a serpent slithering up the side, and when the proper charm was said they would even come to life and slither away, the point of this, no one knew exactly. The bed had been in the family for generations, and the exact purpose of the snakes was lost more than four generations ago. Walking over to a tall matching armoire, with serpents as handles, he pulled open the doors and surveyed the clothes inside. Nearly all were black, white, or had a silver tint to them, with the occasional green thrown in. Reaching in he pulled out a pair of silver pants and a white shirt to match. Next he took out a fitted silver jacket with the Malfoy crest on the pocket and laid it on his bed. He headed into the bathroom to take a shower.

A half an hour later, he was inspecting himself in the full mirror that was in the corner of the room, "Very sharp and handsome," the mirror told him, and Draco smirked, tugging the jacket down lightly and decided finally decided to undo the button and let it just hang. He adjusted the cuffs on the shirt so that they stood out just enough, and then raked a hand through his neat silver hair, letting a piece hang over his eyes. Satisfied, he smirked again and turned to leave the room.

"Now I don't need to remind you to be on your best behavior," Lucius said with a frown as he watched his son sit down in a chair, stretching his legs out in front of him, pulling at a lose thread, a bored expression on his face. "I don't want a repeat of last time, do I make myself clear?" His voice was like ice and made the hair on the back of Draco's neck stand up, but he nodded anyway.

"Of course Father, this time I shall keep my mouth shut and refrain from intelligent conversation," he drawled as he looked past his father at nothing in particular.

Lucius was about to open his mouth with a snide comment, but the doorbell rang and he shut it angrily, snapping at a house elf, "Don't just stand there like an idiot, get the door and show our guests in!" He kicked the house elf towards the door, mumbling something about not being able to find good help these days.

The house elf whimpered and scurried off to the door, opening it and letting the three people in the entrance enter the house. He brought them through the foyer into the living room before scurrying off into the shadows.

Draco looked up, expecting a tall wizard in fancy robes with a scowl on his face, and instead his eyes met up with three ordinary people that looked very out of place standing in the Malfoy foyer. Standing before him were Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and their daughter Virginia. "What are they doing here?" he spat while standing up, a scowl etched across his features as he looked over the family standing before him and turned to his father expectantly.

"Draco," Lucius hissed, "Do not be rude to our guests," his words sounded forced and unnatural, the word 'guests' catching in his throat. "Welcome to Malfoy Manor," he said turning to address the Weasley's. "Draco you know Mr. and Mrs Weasley, don't you? And Virginia, she's a grade younger than you are."

"Of course, the girl who opened the chamber," Draco said cooly turning his gaze to Ginny, "Virginia, nice to see you again," he said politely, but his voice had an edge to it, as he watched her. He hadn't seen her for nearly a year, occasionally once or twice in the halls, but never stopped to take a good look at her. She looked different than he had remembered, slightly taller, her figure filled out a little more. Other than that she was the same. Her red hair still hung straight down her back, and over her shoulders, and her eyes were still brown. The robes she was wearing were obviously not new, frayed at the sleeves, and around the collar, it was also starting to get a little short.

Ginny bristled and nodded politely, not bothering to tell him to call her Ginny. "Nice to see you too," she said, and then her eyes went to looking around the room, in awe of the huge house, but trying not to show it. Walls were bare, except for a few family portraits, and there was a chill in the air that reminded Ginny of the dungeons at Hogwarts, and she shivered gently. A musty smell mixed with the scent of old books hit her nose, and she tried not to wrinkle her nose in distaste. It smelled very different from her own home, in which something was always cooking, and there was always a sweet aroma in the air.

Off to her right there was a stair case leading upstairs, portraits hanging all along the wall, running the length of the staircase. She could feel them looking back at her and she quickly turned her eyes to the other side of the room, looking down dark hallways and trying to figure out where they led. The Malfoy coat of arms was hanging on the wall at the very end of the foyer, and Ginny's eyes were drawn to it, trying to read the small lettering that spelled out the family motto.

Draco smirked, "Do you like it?" He asked, "I'm sure it's nothing you would be used to, living in that little hole you call a house."

Ginny glared at him, and took a step towards him "Don't you dare insult me Draco," she spat, "I'd rather live in what you call a hole any day than in a huge mansion with a death eater!"

"Ginny!" Molly Weasley said, alarmed, as she put a hand on her shoulder tightly, pulling her back, "that was rude, you don't say things like that!"

Ginny frowned and tried to ignore the smug look Draco was sending her way. "Apologize to Mr. Malfoy and Draco," Arthur said; resisting the urge to congratulate his daughter, "We might as well all get along."

She frowned and turned to Lucius and Draco and said as nicely as she could muster, "I'm sorry for insulting you."

Smirking, Draco nodded, "Apology accepted."

"Why don't we all come and sit inside so we can talk?" Lucius suggested opening the doors to a big living room, which was dimly lit, rows of bookshelves along one wall, filled to the ceiling. A fire was lit in the fireplace, giving the room a soft glow, and many chairs and sofas surrounded a coffee table, which sat low to the ground, and was completely bare. Draco followed his father in, and chose a chair off to the side. It was a rich green and had a high back, with serpents wrapped around the arms. He idly ran his finger along the length of the serpent's body as he watched everyone come in and sit down.

His father chose the sofa that was directly across from the door, where he could see everything going on in the hallway. The sofa was large and showed no sign of wear or use. It too was the deep green that was seen throughout the whole Malfoy household, with two pillows that sat at either end.

Molly and Arthur Weasley came in and sat down on two chairs, similar to Draco's, across from Lucius, and Ginny in an armchair, which matched the couch, across from him, but angled slightly.

"I'm sorry I'm late," Narcissa said a few minutes later as she came into the room "I must have lost track of time." She ignored the glare her husband gave her and walked over to the Weasleys, "It's so nice to see you again!" She gushed, her tone obviously forced.

"And so good to see you," Molly said embracing her in a quick, stiff hug before her husband did the same, and Narcissa brushed past her to smile at Ginny and take her place next to her husband.

"Now that we're all here we should get started," Lucius said as he leaned back against the sofa somewhat stiffly, making it obvious that this was a topic he would rather avoid.

"Get started?" Draco asked trying to keep the curiosity from edging into his voice, "what could there possibly be that you have to discuss with _them_?"

"You're marriage," his mother replied idly as if she were talking about what she had done that day. "Your marriage to Ginny of course," she elaborated when she saw the confused expression on his face.

"What?" Draco grimaced, "You have got to be joking, I can not and will not marry a _Weasley!_" He looked over at his father for support, having come to the decision that his mother must be mad.

"Mum?" Ginny asked looking over at her mother with wide eyes, "You can't be serious." she peered over at Draco, "Me, marry _him?_ This is a joke!" She stood up angrily almost sending the chair toppling over for the second time that day. "I would rather die than marry him," she said defiantly.

"If you don't marry him that might happen, now sit down," Molly said giving her daughter a black look, "You don't have a choice Ginny."

Lucius shifted in his seat, "I tried everything to get out of it, but my connections say it's unbreakable," he looked over at his wife, glowering, "It's ironclad."

"Nothing can be iron clad," Draco said, rising to his full height, "Eeverything can be changed, we can afford it."

"Draco, not everything can be solved with money," Narcissa told him, "contrary to what many believe." She looked warily over at her husband, who frowned and held his head a little higher.

"Maybe we should explain everything," Arthur said looking over at Ginny and then over to Draco whose scowl seemed permanently etched onto his face.

"I think that would be a good idea," Ginny said curtly as she crossed her legs at the ankles, and leaned back in her chair waiting for someone to start.

Molly and Narcissa looked at each other, each trying to figure out where to begin, "It started with our fathers," Molly finally said, pointing between herself and Narcissa. "Narcissa's father was having financial trouble, and he borrowed money from my family." Lucius kept his chin held high, fuming at the idea that anyone he was somehow connected to would have to borrow money from someone below their station.

"We ended up in debt," Narcissa said, "Since we couldn't pay it back, my father made a promise with Molly's father. So you see, it's a matter of Wizard Honor, it can't be broken."

Molly nodded, "The boy and girl of each family would be married, but you see, both Narcissa and I are girls, and without siblings, so the debt went unpaid. Under the terms, it falls back onto your generation. And as you see, that leaves it to the two of you."

"Wizard Honor can only be broken by death," Arthur spoke up, "It is a promise made between two wizards, and completely binding. Along with it come certain…terms and conditions that must be fulfilled."

Ginny frowned and looked at them, "What do you mean 'terms and conditions'?"

"There are certain conditions that were laid down when the promise was made…" Narcissa started.

"Well just tell us what they are!" Draco snapped impatiently, leaning forward in his chair, and then slumped back and fell silent at a look from his father.

"The terms are that you must be married by your seventeenth birthday, that you must be married for a minimum of three years, and-" Molly paused, not wanting to go on.

"And you must produce an offspring," Lucius said bluntly.

"No way!" Ginny said automatically, "I will _not_ spend three years with HIM! I'd rather take the death sentence!"

Draco glared at Ginny, "And you think I _want_ to spend the next three years with you? Much less produce an offspring with you?" His nose wrinkled up in distaste, "I don't even want to be in the same room as you. Although, it probably would be the only time you'd ever get to be with someone with any social class."

Ginny opened her mouth angrily to say something but Molly stood up, "Calm down Ginny," she said and gave her daughter a sharp look, causing Ginny to bite her tongue for the moment, "You too, Draco." she said. Draco wanted to say more, to curse those stupid Weasleys and all of their ancestors, but he obliged at the solemn stares of both his parents and Ginny's. "None of us want to see either of you dead, even though we might not be the best of friends."

"You've got that right," Draco murmured, crossing his arms over his chest indignantly.

"But," Narcissa said stepping in, "there is nothing we can do about it…so we might as well try and at least tolerate each other."

Ginny frowned, "I suppose I can be civil as long as I don't ever have to actually talk to him."

Arthur sighed, "Maybe we should just let tempers die down for right now…and get together later in the week when you've both had a chance to think about it?"

"My opinion won't have changed," Draco said stubbornly, his tone icy as he looked over at Ginny.

"Neither will mine," Ginny retorted, her tone reflecting his, "let's go." She started for the door.

Arthur Weasley smiled sheepishly, "I…think that went well," he said moving to shake both Lucius and Narcissa's hands before hurrying out after his daughter.

"We'll be in touch," Mrs. Weasley said and shook the Malfoy's hands as well before leaving to catch up with her husband and daughter.

Draco barely waited until they were out of the room before he exploded, finally allowing himself to lose his temper completely, "What were you thinking?" He yelled at his parents, "I will not marry a _Weasley!_ Surely you can't be serious! What would everyone say?"

"I'm afraid there is no way around it," Lucius said coolly, "For right now we just have to go along with it until I can see if I can work something out."

"But Father-" Draco started but fell silent when he saw the look in his father's eyes. His eyes locked on his father's in a set glare, "Fine. I'll be in my room if you need me." He turned on his heel and strode out of the room and up the stairs.

Narcissa walked over to Lucius. "Lucius, it might not be that bad," she said softly.

He turned angrily, "Get away from me Narcissa. Everything I have worked for, everything I have slaved for, everything is destroyed! I don't want to have to look at you." He turned his gaze towards the fire and said, "Go away before I have the house elves throw you out." Only when he heard the door shut and click behind him did he sigh, walk over to his desk, and light a cigar, staring into the fire absently.

"Ginny please," Molly said, trying to sound calm, "We need to talk about this, it was not our idea…"

Ginny whirled around to her mother angrily, "Well thanks to you, I have to marry Draco Malfoy!" She spat.

"Draco Malfoy?" Ron asked looking up from where he was leafing through a quidditch book by the fire, "Ginny's marrying Draco Malfoy? You've got to be joking."

"No, we're not," Arthur said with a sigh as he hung his coat up on a peg and sat down heavily. "Unfortunately we're not."

"If we could do something to change it we would! Don't you believe that?" Her mother frowned.

"Make him marry Percy! He acts like a girl sometimes," Ginny grumbled and shot a glare at her brother who had burst out laughing. At that look Ron quickly quieted down.

Molly sighed, "Ginny, dear, you know we can't do that…" she tried not to smile at the comment about Percy, and had the situation been any different, she probably would have. "We'll just have to try and make the best of it…"

"Three years?" Ginny said watching her, "Three years? And I have to have a baby with him?"

At this Ron got red in the face and stood up, "WHAT?" He yelled and glanced from Ginny back to his mother, then to his father.

"Not now Ron!" Molly said and waved a hand in his direction, a signal for him to sit back down and mind his own business for now. "Why don't I make us some tea, and we can all sit down and talk about this calmly?"

"Tea?" Ginny said blankly, "You think everything is solved with tea and talking! I'm supposed to marry a death eater's son and you're talking about being calm and drinking tea?"

"What is this about Malfoy?" Ron yelled, and everyone turned to look at him.

Arthur sighed, "Maybe it's time for a family meeting?"

"No, no meetings," Ginny said, shaking her head emphatically. "I want to go to bed, and I don't want to talk about this anymore." She glared at her mother again and turned around and ran up the stairs to her room where she shut the door and flopped down onto her bed.

Molly started for the stairs, but Arthur put his hand out to stop her. "Molly it won't do any good. Let her be by herself for a while."

Ron walked over to them and waved his hand in front of their faces. "What in bloody hell is going on?" he demanded once he had gotten their attention and they turned to look at him.

Arthur sighed, "Not now Ron, your mother and I just need to get some rest. We'll discuss it in the morning…and leave your sister alone for tonight." He put his hand gently on his wife's back leading her up the stairs to their room, leaving a very perplexed Ron standing in the middle of the living room.

"What are we going to do, Arthur?" Molly sighed, as she sank onto the bed.

He kissed her gently, "Nothing we can do Molly, we just…need to all calm down and think about it in the morning. Get some sleep." She nodded and laid down next to her husband, closing her eyes, not bothering to change into her pajamas.

Down the hall, Ginny had pulled a chair over by her window and sat in it, her knees curled up under her chin as she stared out the window idly. She was trying to convince herself that everything happened for a reason, and maybe, just maybe, Draco wouldn't as bad as she thought, although she doubted it. For as long as she had known him, he'd been self-absorbed and had hated her. Ginny cringed as she thought about what everyone at school would say and how they would probably shun her. She felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach when she thought about what Harry would say, and how he would react. Not that she liked him as more than a friend, but with Harry being one of her good friends, and Draco being his enemy, he wasn't bound to be pleased.

Ginny took pride in knowing it was Draco's mother in debt to hers and not the other way around. This and the thread of hope that there was a loophole somewhere, were the only things keeping her from completely resigning herself to the fact that she and Draco would be married. As hard as she tried not to be angry with her parents, she couldn't help it; they were after all, the ones who were making her marry him. As she thought about it, she realized the blame was to fall entirely on her grandparents, after all, her mother had not made the promise, nor had she been asked to be born a girl, or an only child. She was too deep in her own thoughts to hear someone come up the stairs, and jumped when she heard a knock at the door, "Come in," she sighed and turned her gaze back to the window.

"Ginny?" Ron said softly as he came in, balancing a tray of lemonade in one hand while closing the door behind him, "Can we talk?" He asked, handing her a cup.

Ginny took it gratefully and sighed, "I really don't want to talk right now Ron."

"I just want to know what's going on," he said and sat down her bed.

"Nothing that makes any sense," came Ginny's reply as she took a sip of the lemonade and turned back to look at him.

"Well…" Ron shrugged, "You could tell me anyway." He watched her, a worried expression on his face.

After a long silence, Ginny sighed and said, "Because of some Wizard promise I have to marry Draco Malfoy and stay married to him for three years and have a baby. We have to get married before he turns seventeen."

"Wizard promise?" He asked, raising a brow. "Since when would Mum or Dad promise that?"

"They didn't," Ginny told him absently, "Mum's parents did." She took another sip of the lemonade, "The only way it's avoidable is by death."

Ron paled, "You're…going to marry him, right?"

"Of course not!" Ginny said, looking at him like he was insane, "We're talking about Draco Malfoy here, Ron! A death eater's son…there is no way I'm going to marry him!"

"So you choose death?" Ron asked softly as he watched her.

"I don't know!" Ginny snapped and then sighed "I don't know, Ron, I'm sorry, but I just can't imagine being with him for three years."

"Well," he started slowly, "as much as I hate Malfoy, I don't want you to die."

"What?" Ginny gasped, surprised her jaw dropping. "I thought you of all people would be against this!"

"Well I am! The Malfoy part that is," he said, shrugging as he played with the corner of the blanket, "I just…don't want to see you die, that's all." He shrugged again, his face and ears growing red.

She nodded, "I guess I can understand that. Death isn't too appealing to me, either. I mean…it wouldn't be that bad, right?" She said, biting her lip, trying to convince herself more than him.

"Right, not that bad," he nodded, lying through his teeth, "Besides, it's only three years, you can leave him and come home…and just think, two of those years you'll probably be in Hogwarts, in separate houses and separate ends of the castle!"

"Right," she nodded, "But that still leaves the part about producing an heir." She wrinkled her nose. "Which, to be honest…is the part that scares me the most."

"I don't blame you; if I had to produce an heir with Malfoy I'd be scared too!" He said jokingly, trying to lighten the mood, and then sighed. With a frown he continued, "Gin, I don't like this, I'm going to be honest. The thought of you with Malfoy makes my skin crawl." He watched her, "I mean, you're my sister, and he's…Malfoy!" Ron said, thinking that just about explained it all, and then added in a nastier tone, "All I can say is, I don't want him touching you!"

"It's kind of hard to produce a heir without touching each other," Ginny said warily looking down into the glass, "I mean I might as well get used to the idea, it's going to happen whether I want it to or not… It has to happen."

Ron scowled, "If he hurts you Gin…I swear I will kill him." There was sudden venom in Ron's voice, and when Ginny looked up at him the expression of hatred on his face startled her.

She got up and walked over to sit next to him, putting a hand on his arm soothingly, "I can take care of myself, Ron, I'm sure it'll all be alright…" She watched him for a minute and then added with a smile, "and after three years, then you can kill him!"

"Or I could kill him right now and we wouldn't have to worry about all this," Ron told her, his tone softening only slightly as she placed her hand on his arm.

Ginny shook her head, "You couldn't kill anyone Ron, and every one knows that."

"Yeah well," Ron said sitting up a little straighter, "If I had to, I bet I could."

"Let's just hope you never have to," she told him, and they let the silence hang in the air for a few minutes, thinking about what she had just said, Ron using the time to calm himself down. When he spoke again, his tone was back to normal.

"We'll see if we can come up with something that would somehow break the promise," Ron said trying to sound hopeful, "You never know, there are probably loop holes in everything. Maybe Hermione and Harry can help us find one."

"Alright, but…only they can know!" Ginny said quickly, "I don't want anyone else knowing about this. It's bad enough that it's happening; I don't need to deal with anyone else's opinions."

Ron nodded, "you'll have to face them sometime, though."

She bit her lip, looking down at the comforter, "You don't think all the Gryffindors will hate me, do you, Ron?"

Ron looked startled, "Of course not, Gin," he said surprised. "You didn't choose this, you didn't want it to happen, and it was one of those things you can't control. Besides, if someone does hate you for it, they'll have to answer to me, Harry, and Hermione."

"Thanks," Ginny said smiling slightly and yawned, "I think I'm going to go to bed now…"

Ron nodded, got up, and kissed her forehead. "'Night Gin. Remember, I'm here if you need to talk," he said and left the room, quietly shutting the door behind him.

Ginny echoed a goodnight and closed the curtains on the window before quickly changing for bed. She laid her head down on the pillow and closed her eyes, trying not to think about Draco, the wizard promise, and a baby she would eventually have to have. After a long time, she finally fell asleep.


	2. Friends Arrive and Potions

**Author's Note:  Thanks to everyone who reviewed lol…all two of you ;) you guys rock! I realized that after I got the last chapter up, I thought I had included an authors note, but sadly…I didn't! Which means I forgot to thank one very very special person.  RunAway/Nicole/Whatever she wants to be called on here, who is my beta reader, and who read all of my chapters and edited everything, and has put up (and continues to) all my many grammatical errors!!! **hugs** you're the best!!!! **

**~Chapter 2~**

Ginny woke up the next morning in a cold sweat.  Her eyes flew open and she groaned, remembering the nightmare she'd had last night.  Sleep hadn't come easily, but when it finally had she'd only had nightmares about marrying Draco, that had included a big, damp, musty mansion much like Malfoy Manor, and about ten little blonde haired boys running around.  A smug Draco would sit on a couch, making her wait on him hand and foot.  Ginny shivered just remembering it and tried to push it out of her mind.

She pulled the covers over her head and closed her eyes, trying to think of something happy, anything but marrying Draco.  However, she couldn't get the thought of her mind and pushed the covers back and rolled out of bed yawning.  She walked over to her dresser looking in the mirror, "My, my, don't we have bed head?" the mirror said when she looked into it, and Ginny frowned. 

"Oh be quiet," she muttered and picked up a hairbrush pulling it through her hair, and glared into the mirror.  Once she'd tamed her hair she changed into a pair of shorts and a shirt and left her room, wandering downstairs to get some breakfast.  

"Good morning Ginny," her mother smiled and set out a plate of breakfast for her. "I kept it warm for you… your father is already at work, and Fred and George are playing quidditch in the back with Ron." 

Ginny nodded absently and started to eat.  "So have you thought anymore about what happened last night?" her mother asked cautiously sitting down across from her.

She looked up from her food, "It's hard _not_ to think about it," she replied, "I had this awful nightmare last night about us being married…" She shuddered again, "If I ever have to see Draco again, it'll be too soon!"

"It's just a dream," Molly pointed out, "I'm sure you always imagine the worst in dreams."  She paused.  "Well you might be seeing Draco sooner than you think," Molly said and got out her wand, levitating dirty plates towards the sink.

Ginny's head snapped up "What do you mean?" she asked with a frown, "I'm not going back there."

"Ginny," Molly sighed, "you have to understand our hands are tied on this…we don't have any choice.  Now you don't really want to die, do you?"  

"Sometimes it sounds better than spending three years married to _him_," she said and pushed her plate away, suddenly not hungry anymore.  

Molly sighed, "Your father and I are trying very hard to find a way out of it, and trust me, so are the Malfoys.  No one wants this."

"Well obviously someone did!" Ginny retorted harshly as she brought her plate over to the sink and deposited it inside to be washed, "Otherwise the promise wouldn't have been made!"

"At the time I'm sure it sounded like a very good idea," Molly said soothingly, "They had no way of knowing how everything would turn out.  If they did, I'm sure other arrangements would have been made."

"And the hard part is I adore Grandma and Grandpa and they're the ones that got me in this mess is the first place!" Ginny said bitterly as she ran her finger around the edge of her glass.

Molly sighed, "This isn't how they wanted it to turn out.  They feel awful about it, I talked to them this morning, they'd like to come and see you-" She frowned when she saw Ginny shake her head emphatically. 

"No, I don't want to see them right now.  If I did I'd probably say something I'd regret," Ginny told her, "Maybe some other time; I hope you didn't tell them they could come."

"Ginny, they're your grandparents, I can't tell them they can't come," she said, "Besides, they haven't seen Ron or the twins in a long time and…"

Ginny cut her off with a loud groan, as she leaned against the counter.  "Can we not talk about this anymore?" She asked with a sigh, her eyes turning to gaze out the window at the quidditch game that was going on, "I'd really rather not." 

Molly sighed.  "Tomorrow afternoon we have to go into Diagon Alley.  You're going to need a new dress, and some dress robes."

"What?" Ginny said surprised as she turned to look at her mother, "But we can't afford that, and my old ones aren't in that bad of condition."

"Don't worry about it," Molly said as she started the dishes washing themselves again, "you can't go to the Ministry Ball in anything you've got in your closet upstairs." 

Ginny frowned, "I don't think I like the sound of this… you've never made me go before, what's so different about this year?" Her eyes narrowed. "I don't have to go with Malfoy do I?"

Her mother sighed, "There could be worse things Ginny…"

"Nothing I can think of!" She grumbled.

"You and Draco need to get to know each other, I'm sure he's a very nice boy underneath it all; he's just had a hard time growing up.  He hasn't had the same home environment as you have, and I feel sorry for him, being in that big house, practically alone, with a man like Mr. Malfoy, and his mother isn't much better," she said, shaking her head sadly.  "You'd be a good influence on him I'm sure, and you do have to appear in society together at some point, you might as well get used to it now."

"Draco is the same through and through, Mum, you don't know him like I do," Ginny protested. "And I wouldn't feel sorry for him. I'm sure he loves being in that huge house, with all that money, treating others like trash."  She scoffed, "and I don't want to be his friend, his wife, his role model, or the mother of his child!"

Mrs. Weasley looked at her daughter curiously.  "That's funny, I wasn't under the impression you knew him that well at all. How can you know him, when you barely even speak with him?  For instance, what does he want to do when he leaves Hogwarts?" Her eyes had a challenging look to them, knowing Ginny couldn't answer.

Ginny faltered for a minute, and then answered, "he probably wants to be a death eater just like his father."

"I thought we raised you better than this, Virginia Weasley," she said disappointment showing clearly on her face, and in her voice.  "Don't judge someone you don't know. Now I'll be the first to admit that we don't get along with them, we don't like them very much, but your father and I have known Lucius and Narcissa for many years, and when we speak, we know what we're talking about. I suggest you get to know Draco before labeling him." 

Ginny looked at her mother, speechless, "I'm…I'm sorry," she finally said, shocked at the disappointment she could hear in her mother's voice and suddenly feeling very ashamed of herself. 

"You should be," she told her, and then heard the knock at the front door, "That must be Harry or Hermione.  They both took the Knight Bus when Ron owled last night.  Why he couldn't have waited, I have no idea…" She brushed passed Ginny to open the door to the burrow. 

Standing outside the door was a boy Ron's age with messy brown hair, which was falling in his eyes, barely covering a lightning shaped scar, and only lightly falling over the lenses of his glasses.  His plain green t-shirt was wrinkled from the trip and half tucked in and half falling out of his faded jeans, which were obviously old and too short for him, as his ankles were clearly visible.  He was wearing no socks, and the laces of his old sneakers flopped over the sides, untied, just waiting for someone to step on them and trip.  He looked tired, but managed to smile as he saw Mrs. Weasley, "Harry!" Molly said and ushered him in, "I hope the trip was alright…I can't believe Ron owled you so late last night…"

"We were glad he did," spoke up a girl with bushy brown hair, who was standing beside Harry.  Wearing a plain blue t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers, she too had the same half asleep look, and Ginny knew it must be from the long night on the knight bus, which wasn't known for being comfortable.  She easily would have fit in anywhere and not be noticed for a witch, had she not had her wand sticking out of her pocket and her Hogwarts robes draped over her arm.  Ginny found herself wondering why she brought them, when it was extremely hot and muggy out, but she quickly pushed the thought aside and moved back so they could come in.

"Hermione come in," Mrs. Weasley smiled and ushered the girl inside, closing the door behind them both, "Ron is outside playing quidditch.  Would you like some breakfast? You look exhausted." She levitated their trunks and bags up the steps and into the appropriate rooms while she talked.

"Breakfast would be great," Harry said gratefully and looked up at Ginny.  "Hello Ginny."  He smiled and hugged her quickly.

"Nice to see you Harry," she smiled, and hugged him back, then turned to embrace Hermione, "You didn't have to come all the way out here you know…"

Hermione shook her head, "Of course we did. I brought along all my books they're upstairs; Ron explained everything, if there is a loophole I'm sure we can find it," she said confidently with as much energy as she could muster after her long trip.  "We just need to do some research, that's all."

A groan came from the doorway, and Ginny looked behind her to see Ron. "Only Hermione would think of doing research in the middle of the summer," he grumbled, but he was smiling good-naturedly.

Hermione couldn't help but smile, "Hello Ron," she said, "well, this research is for a good cause," she pointed out as Mrs. Weasley came into the room, "Besides, it wouldn't hurt for you to brush up on your study skills, that way I won't be doing all your homework for you!"

Mrs. Weasley raised an eyebrow at Hermione's last comment and turned to look at Ron, "Ronald Weasley, you haven't been copying, have you?"

"Um…no, of course not Mum," he said with a sheepish smile, shifting his weight onto his other foot nervously as he sent a quick glare Hermione's way, who just smiled back. 

She sighed, and looked at him sternly, "We'll have a talk about this later Ron."  She then turned to Hermione and Harry, her gaze softening, "I have some breakfast out on the table if you'd like some.  I'll just get extra beds ready in Ginny and Ron's room…" She brushed passed them and up the stairs, leaving them alone.

"Gee thanks," Ron said, frowning as he looked over at Hermione, "Thanks to you I'll get in trouble!"

"Well it serves you right," Hermione smiled.  "Copying is a horrid thing to do anyway." She sat down at the kitchen table, ignoring Ron's grumbling, "Now, Ginny…about this wizard promise…" 

Ginny groaned and sat down on a chair, not letting her finish.  "There are no loopholes, Hermione! If there were, don't you think Mr. Malfoy would have found them by now? Or my Mum or Dad?" 

"You never know, we might find something.  It's worth a try," Harry said picking a muffin up off the table and biting into it.  "Besides, it gives me a chance to get out of the Dursley's."  He winked at Ginny, "so it won't be all bad." 

Ginny sighed, "Fine, alright…but I'm not getting my hopes up."

An awkward silence hung in the air for a few minutes before Ron said, "So Harry, did you bring your broom?  We can go outside and play some before Mum comes down and sets me to work de-gnoming the garden, or wants to know more about my school work from last year." He shot another look over at Hermione, who smiled back sweetly.  

Harry nodded, "Of course I did, I wouldn't come without it.  Besides, I've been looking forward to beating Fred and George."

Ron grinned and nodded as well, "Finally a fair game! Before it was me against Fred _and_ George."  Harry smiled, grabbing his broom.  The two of them headed out the back door, already discussing strategies to beat the twins, leaving Hermione and Ginny sitting alone in the kitchen.

"I'm so sorry," Hermione said taking one of the muffins out of the bowl and bit into it, "It must feel awful." 

Ginny sighed and rubbed her head, not really wanting to talk about it, "It almost doesn't seem…" she paused and thought for a minute, "Real.  I mean, a Malfoy and a Weasley?" She shuddered, "I can't even stand to think about him." 

Hermione nodded "I can understand that…maybe if it was someone else you'd feel better about it?"

Ginny raised an eyebrow questioningly, "Like who?"  

"Oh, I don't know…Harry, maybe?" Hermione said with a smile. 

"I would feel better if it were Harry," Ginny said slowly, and truthfully, "but… I don't like him like that anymore, he's just a good friend." 

"Right," she nodded and took a bite out of her muffin, "Well at least Draco isn't bad to look at, I'll give him that," Hermione winked.

Ginny's eyes went wide, "Hermione!  What has gotten into you?" She looked at her friend and began to laugh, "You're starting to sound like Lavender!"

"Don't you dare compare me to Lavender! And, well it's true!" She said defensively.  "Think about it, it could be a lot worse…you could be marrying someone like…Crabbe, or Goyle, or Marcus Flint…or-" She paused, a mischievous gleam in her eye, "Snape." 

Ginny made a gagging noise.  "Ew! Don't even joke about that," she shuddered at the thought of their tall, stern faced, ill-tempered potions teacher.  "Just even thinking about him makes my skin crawl."

"Well there you go," Hermione smiled, "It could be worse," she said good-naturedly.  

"I guess you're right… although Malfoy is _really_ bad," she replied warily, and at the moment, the only thing that seemed less appealing than marry Malfoy, was marrying Snape.  Not that anything like that could ever happen, but it still made her feel like she was going to lose her breakfast, what little of it she did eat.

"Maybe he won't be so bad after all," Hermione offered, "You never know, maybe you'll fall madly in love with him." She shrugged and took a bite of the muffin, "it could work out…" She was trying to comfort her friend and hoped maybe making up a few lies would help, for now at least.

"With Malfoy?" Ginny scoffed, "I doubt it; he's the most self centered, rude, obnoxious guy I have ever met, and it would make my life a lot easier if he would just disappear."  She scowled.  

Hermione nodded "I know what you mean, I wouldn't want to trade places with you.  At least your family is going to be supportive, and I promise we'll keep looking for some way out of this up until the end," she smiled at her friend and finished her muffin, "And if we don't find one…then we'll worry about that then." 

Ginny nodded with a sigh, "Thanks Hermione."

"Let's get started now, Harry and Ron can join us later.  I brought all my books with me hoping one of them might have something.  It's too bad we don't have access to the library at Hogwarts, but I'm sure we can go to the one in Diagon Alley later if we need to," she said, wiping her hands together to get the crumbs off her fingers and stood up, "Now where did your mother put my trunk?" 

~*~

Draco woke up the next morning when the light hit his eyes, and he groaned, opening one eye warily and frowning when he saw a house elf tying the curtains back, "Who told you to do that?" He demanded, a slightly sleepy tone in his voice.  "I don't remember telling you to wake me up." Draco snapped as he sat up.

The house elf recoiled, and said in a soft, shaky voice, "Master said to wake you up and have him meet you in the dining room…" 

Draco frowned, "Very well, leave," he said and dismissed the house elf with a wave of his hand, getting out of bed after he saw the door click shut.  He walked over to a large chair that was sitting in front of his desk, a pair of black pants, a green shirt, and his dress robes lying across it.  "Great," he mumbled as he noticed the dress robes, and then left them there.  After showering, he came into the room and quickly dressed, leaving the front of the robes open so he wouldn't get quite as hot as he did the day before.  He slicked his hair back and slid his wand into the pocket inside his robe, not bothering to worry about the fact that he couldn't use it during the summer.

The walk to the dining room was a short one, and Draco kept a leisurely pace.  Even though he was hungry, having missed the dinner the night before when their guests had left, he wouldn't give his father the satisfaction of dictating what he did.  As he descended the stairs he paused at a portrait of his mother's father, "So this is the traitor," he said distastefully. 

"I am no traitor!" the portrait responded, "I did what I had to do." He held his head high, and Draco studied him for a minute, for the first time noticing the strong resemblance to his mother.  The man had high cheekbones, a long pointy nose, and blonde hair.

Draco scoffed, "Going below your station for help and promising your son to them?"

"You were not there," The portrait said, irritated, "You had no idea what was going on at the time," He turned to a portrait to his left, "All you young wizards these days believe you know everything!  I believe when I made my decision I knew a lot more about what was going on than you did, you have no right to second guess me!"

"When it affects my life, I believe I do," Draco said coldly.

"If only my daughter could hear how he was talking to me," the portrait commented, "if only I was there, you could be assured that the punishment would be swift and harsh!"

Draco rolled his eyes lazily, "Somehow I get the feeling she doesn't like you very much and wouldn't care if I slashed this portrait right now." 

"You wouldn't dare!" The man inside the portrait sputtered, "You wouldn't!"

"Don't test me," he replied dryly, "I might." He turned to continue down the stairs, ignoring the whispering between the portraits.  He walked down the hall and pushed open the doors to the dining room.  It was a large room with a fireplace at one end, and a table that sat twenty people took up most of the room, "Father," he nodded to the man sitting at the head of the table on the other end and took a seat to the right of his mother, who was sitting at head of the table, nearest to the door.

"You are late," Mr. Malfoy quipped, "I expect punctuality, Draco.  We didn't wait breakfast for you, if it is cold it is your own fault." He looked up from the Daily Prophet, which was propped up against a silver candlestick so he could read and eat at the same time.  The stone gray owl that was perched on the windowsill had no doubt brought it.

Draco nodded and put a piece of toast on his plate starting to butter it, "Anything interesting?" he asked, motioning to the paper, which his father had not taken his eyes off of.

"No," Lucius shook his head, "Just the usual… lots of lost cats, missing house elves, the like," he said and flipped the page. "Nothing that would concern someone of our station." 

Draco nodded and turned his attention to eating the piece of toast, which was sitting in front of him.

"Draco I left some books for you in the study, you are to review them and be prepared to answer some questions this afternoon.  They all should help you in the upcoming year of potions," Lucius said.  "I have enlisted the help of Severus for the summer, and he will be coming next week to give you further instruction."

He frowned, "Further instruction?  What do I need further instruction for?" 

"You'll need it if you are to become a potions master," Lucius told him simply and took another bite of his food.  

"Who said I wanted to be a potions master?" Draco furrowed his brow as he looked down the table at his father. 

"I did," his father snapped, "If you know potions, you will always have a job."

"A job with the Dark Lord you mean?" Draco snapped, watching his father intently.  Even though it was common knowledge that his father was a death eater, and he would not let anyone make snide remarks about it, he had yet to figure out if that was the path he wanted to follow in.

"Of course!" Lucius looked up, "What else would you do? You are to follow in my footsteps, and you will be a very powerful wizard.  Potions will help to get you there."

"I see," Draco said, in a tone that said that for the moment the subject was closed.  Potions had never been his strong point, and usually he only passed because Professor Snape had favored Slytherins.

Mr. Malfoy turned back to the Daily Prophet, reading and flipping pages idly before he closed it and threw it into the fire, "Another waste of my time," he muttered and started to eat.

Draco looked over at his mother, who was idly pushing food around on her plate, and then looked over at his father.  He knew, of course, that their relationship had never been perfect, but this morning there was a stony silence in the air.  He finally cleared his throat.  "So have you found a loophole in that wizard honor?"

Lucius' jaw tensed, "There is no loophole Draco, we have been over this." He glared down at his wife, "Because of your mother, everything we have worked for is ruined.  You could have grown up and married into a high class family and had easy admittance into the ring of Death Eaters.  Now, of course, all that is ruined."

Narcissa suddenly put her cup down with a bang, the liquid splashing out of the cup and landing on the table, "It is _not_ my fault," she said, her eyes flashing.  "I did not ask for this to happen, I did not make the promise myself, it has nothing to do with me."

"It has everything to do with you!" Lucuis roared, "If your father hadn't been so bloody stupid and foolish, then we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place and Draco would not be engaged to a filthy Weasley! That's almost as bad as making him marry a mudblood!"

Narcssia watched him, fuming, "You can't plan everything and expect it to work out that way! Do you think I'm happy about this?" She frowned, "I know the Weasley family just as well as you do, and I know how wrong this is! But there is _nothing I can do_."

Draco watched the banter with an amused smirk on his face.  The scene in front of him was familiar, and he was used to seeing it, so it didn't faze him in the slightest.

Lucius pushed his chair back and stood up, his face slightly red, which was an improvement over his deathly pale look, "I want you out," he finally said staring at her, his voice icy and low, a tone Draco immediately recognized. 

Narcissa threw her napkin down on the table, and stood up, "You can't kick me out," she continued to watch him.  "What would everyone say? Besides I know things about you, things about this house that would get you thrown into Azkaban for.  You can't afford to throw me out," she said, a smug tone to her voice.

Draco looked down the table at his father, noticing his father's shoulders tense and knew at once that his mother was right.  "I will be in my office," Lucius snapped and then looked pointedly over at the house elf, "I am not to be disturbed, _for any reason_.  Do you understand?"

The house elf nodded meekly, "Master shall not be disturbed…" he said and looked up at Lucius as he headed out of the room, pausing to kick him harshly, "Now start clearing the plates, breakfast is over."  He shot a glowering look at his wife and son before he left the room, slamming the door behind him.

"Well I think he's in a perfectly wonderful mood," Draco said sarcastically, a slight smile dancing across his face.

Narcssia looked at him warily, not finding any humor in his statement, "I'll be in my room.  Mind your father, today is not the day to get on his bad side," she warned and left the room, pausing only to let the house elf open the door, before she disappeared through it. 

Draco stood; leaving the dishes sitting on the table, knowing the house elves would come and clear them away shortly.  As his father had said, there were four thick books stacked up on a desk in the middle of the study, which was a few doors down from the dining room.  He flopped down onto a chair and piled the books on his lap, flipping through them, finding no titles that interested him.  The Book of Bubbling Brews he scoffed at, throwing it aside, judging by the title nothing in there would be of any interest to him.  Potions and the Dark Arts: A History, Draco groaned, and threw that aside as well, history had never been anything that had interested him.  He picked up the third, and eyed it warily, Potions for the Malicious Mind.  The cover showed a picture of a man who looked to be withering in pain, his eyes blood shot, cuts all over his body, he would occasionally jerk, switching positions.  Draco smirked and put it off to the side as something that could be amusing, if not grab his attention.  

The last book was lying on his lap, Potions and Mind Controlling Poisons.  He ran his hand over the raised letters on the cover and watched as they disappeared and in its place came the words, _'read me'_.  Draco found himself opening the cover and turning the pages, his eyes riveted to the page.  There was nothing that seemed extremely special about the book, it was worn and frayed around the edges like the others, and there was nothing eye grabbing about it, but he felt himself being drawn to it and soon became engrossed in the words that were running across the page.  He leaned back against the couch, put his feet up on the table, and shifted the heavy book in his lap, turning the page.  After a few minutes of looking at it, Draco could feel his mind go fuzzy, and he blinked, suddenly snapping the book shut, his breathing uneven.  He set it down next to the others, and shook his head, clearing his thoughts as he reached for another book, starting to read.  


	3. Signatures and the Grandparents

**~Chapter Three~**

Ginny sighed and put a hand to her forehead, rubbing gently, "We're not going to find anything," she said, shoving a large book off her lap and letting it fall to the ground with a thud.  "It's no use Hermione, just give up." She pushed a stack of books across the bed towards Hermione and leaned back against the pillow, closing her eyes in defeat. 

Hermione frowned, "It has to be here somewhere…I can't imagine that my books wouldn't have anything on it! We just have to keep looking," she said stubbornly as she picked up the book Ginny had been leafing through, "It has to be here."  
  


"No it doesn't!" Ginny snapped, "I told you, we're giving up." She pulled the book away from Hermione and set it on top of the others, "Just give it a rest, I'm sick of this.  Why don't we do something fun? Go grab our brooms and join the guys…"

Hermione frowned again and looked at her, "I can't believe you're quitting Virginia Weasley!  I never labeled you as a quitter!"

"I'm not a quitter Hermione!" She snapped angrily "I just know when to quit, which apparently you don't!  This has to do with me, not you, so just give up! I told you I don't want to look anymore." 

"Well you can give up, but I'm not," Hermione said as she grabbed another book and opened it. 

Ginny pushed it out of her hands, making it slide off her lap and onto the floor where it landed with a large thud.  Hermione's eyes went wide and she whirled around on Ginny angrily, "Excuse me if I don't enjoy sitting around watching you pity yourself when we could actually be doing something!" 

"I'm not _pitying_ myself," Ginny replied an angry edge to her voice, "I'm merely giving into the inevitable!  To what has to be done, what is going to happen!  Why get my hopes up?"

"Nothing is set in stone," Hermione frowned. 

"Maybe not in the muggle world, but in the wizarding world, some are!" Ginny said angrily.

Hermione was just about to respond angrily when the door opened and Ron stepped into the doorway, his cheeks red from being out in the sun for a long period of time, and his shirt sticking to him like a second skin from all the sweat, "What in bloody hell is going on?" He asked picking up the book off the floor and smoothing out the pages before handing it back to Hermione. 

"Ginny's given up," Hermione accused, throwing a glare at Ginny before turning back to Ron.  "We could find something, but she won't even try!"

Ron looked over at Ginny, and then back at Hermione, "Maybe she's had enough looking for now…maybe later," he said, trying to calm both of them down.  

"Maybe I just don't want to think about it anymore!" Ginny said tears coming to her eyes, "maybe I just want to forget about it for right now!" She crossed her arms and turned away from the both of them.

Ron sighed, "Ginny…" He put an arm on her shoulder comfortingly, "We don't have to talk about it right now, we can just do something else… like chess, or…we could go play more quidditch, or go for a swim in the lake…" He looked over at Hermione pointedly, "Right?" 

"Um…right," Hermione said, nodding as she put the book down on top of the others, "Maybe some other time we can look through them, or Harry and I could look while you go do something else…" 

Ginny sighed, "Fine, let's just go swimming or something." She didn't really feel like doing anything at the moment, but if it got her mind off the wizard promise and Draco Malfoy, and if it would mean that they would leave her alone for a while, then she figured it would be all right.

"Why don't you and Harry go and get ready, and Ginny and I will meet you down there," Hermione responded ushering Ron out of the room.  When he was gone she shut the door and sighed, "I'm sorry Ginny, I should have realized that this isn't easy for you, and it wouldn't be something you'd want to do…"

"I'm sorry for snapping at you," Ginny sighed, "you were only trying to help, I just need some time where I'm not thinking about it.  You know, just something fun."  She shrugged, "Maybe swimming will be just what the doctor ordered." 

Hermione nodded, already digging around in her trunk for her swimsuit, "Besides, it's such a nice day," she said idly as she grabbed it from the bottom and disappeared behind Ginny's dresser to change, only her head visible from the top. 

Ginny nodded, grabbed her swimsuit, and changed quickly, "Come on, maybe we can beat the guys down there," she smiled and grabbed two towels, and when Hermione was finished changing, she opened the door and headed down the stairs, Hermione running after her. 

Outside it was a nice clear day, and although it was hot, there was a slight breeze that made it bearable.  Ginny kicked off her shoes and walked through their backyard, careful not to step on any of the gnomes who had found their way back into the yard.  The lake in the back was not huge, but it wouldn't be called small either.  Unlike many lakes, the water in this one was crystal clear, and always at the perfect temperature, having been bewitched by her father.  Leaving her towel on the grass, Ginny walked out into the water, and waited for Ron, Hermione, and Harry to join her.

Hermione left her towel next to Ginny's and walked in, ducking under once, pushing the hair out of her eyes, and came up, floating on her back, "It's so nice out here," she said as she closed her eyes, letting herself drift along. 

"It's always been one of my favorite places," Ginny said and ducked under the water again, coming up, "Dad has it charmed so that it never gets dirty or too cold."  She ran her hand along the top of the water, "Although I imagine it wouldn't be too cold today even if it was at its normal temperature." 

Hermione nodded, and continued to float on her back, her eyes closed.  "I wonder where Harry and Ron are," she said and a second later, she found out when two large splashes hit her, and she looked up to see Harry and Ron had jumped in.  She pushed the water out of her eyes and sighed, "Some of us were enjoying a relaxing time until you jumped in!"

Ginny laughed and splashed her, "Relax Hermione, it's not a big deal." She looked over at Harry and laughed, "you know usually you take your glasses off before you get into the water." 

Harry shrugged sheepishly. "I know, but I have this string that muggles use to hold them on," he showed her, "and Hermione put a spell on them so I can still see when they're wet…so I figure it's not a big deal." He smiled and ducked under the water.

Ron shook his head. "Muggles have always been odd sorts," he said as he sunk into the water so that only his head was showing.

Hermione splashed him, "Hey! I'm half muggle you know."

"I know," Ron grinned, "thank you for proving my point!"  She rolled her eyes and started to float on her back again.  

A few hours later, Ginny got out of the water and put her towel around her waist, "I'm all wrinkled like a prune!" She laughed. 

Harry shrugged, "But the look works for you," he grinned sitting next to her, Ginny rolled her eyes as Ron sat down next to her, and Hermione next to him.  She laid back and looked up at the sky.  

"Hmm…" Harry said as he studied the clouds and then pointed to one, "that one looks like a dog."

Ginny studied it for a minute and shook her head, "No, it's more like a cat." 

"Nope, you're both wrong," Ron said smugly, "its a dragon."

Hermione laughed, "A dragon? You've got to be joking, it's clearly a wolf."

Ron studied the cloud again and shook his head, "Nope, I still see a dragon."

Ginny smiled as she listened to them and closed her eyes, slowly starting to fall asleep, when she felt someone nudge her shoulder, "I think Mom's calling us," Ron said.  Ginny paused, and sure enough she could hear her mother's voice. 

"Virginia Weasley get in here right now!" her mother called.

Ginny sighed, "Come on you guys."  She stood up and wrapped the towel around her waist again, pushing a wet piece of hair out of her eyes, "We better get back, she probably wants help with dinner or something…" She slid her shoes on and started back through the yard, the other three at her heels, and when she entered the room, she called, "I'm here Mum!"  Not seeing her mother in the kitchen, she headed into the living room and stopped short.  Seated on the worn sofa was her grandmother, Alice Lemmons, and on the other side of her, her parents.  Standing next to the fireplace, a smirk on his face, stood Draco Malfoy, and seated stiffly on two chairs next to the fireplace were Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy.  Seated on a chair and looking very impatient was a man Ginny didn't recognize. 

"Hello Virginia," Draco smirked as he watched her, "You look a little wet."

Ginny looked over at her mother.  "What are _they_ doing here?" She hissed, as Ron, Hermione and Harry came in behind her. 

"Malfoy," Ron sneered angrily and started towards him, but Hermione put a hand on his arm. 

"Weasley, Potter," Draco sneered as he looked over at them, "having a good summer I take it?  Trapped in this…what do you call it again? A house…a burrow?"  

"Get out of here," Ron said his voice stern.  

"Ronald Weasley," Molly said standing up and walking over to them, "The Malfoys are our guests… we need to speak with them and Ginny alone." She stressed the word "alone".  "Why don't you and Harry and Hermione go to Diagon Alley and see Fred and George? You haven't been to the joke shop lately."

Ron opened his mouth to say something, but Hermione interrupted, "That sounds lovely Mrs. Weasley, we'll be back in a few hours." She grabbed Ron and Harry's hands and dragged them out of the room.

Ginny watched them go, and wrapped her towel around her more, suddenly self-conscious,  "And why don't you go change?" Molly suggested, "And be quick about it… we don't want to wait all day."

Ginny nodded absently and turned and ran up the stairs.  After drying off, she quickly pulled on a pair of shorts and a top and pulled her wet hair up into a ponytail after running a brush through it.  As she looked in the mirror, she sighed.  She looked like a mess, but knew there was no time to do anything about it now; besides, there wasn't anyone downstairs she was trying to impress.  When she came back downstairs, there were three new people in the room, only one of which she recognized as her grandfather, Paul Lemmons, who was notorious for being late.

"Ginny," Molly said as she came in, "we need to all talk. This is William T. Bloor from the Ministry of Magic, he deals with Wizarding Promises and contracts," She pointed to the man who Ginny hadn't recognized.

He stood up and shook her hand with a tense smile, "Nice to meet you Virginia."

"Ginny," she corrected and shook his hand.  He appeared to be about her father's age, with thin brown hair, and blue eyes.  He was dressed in dress robes, sporting the ministry of magic logo, and was carrying a briefcase of some sort.

He nodded, "of course, Ginny," he smiled and sat back down.

"This is Alucard Black, Draco's grandfather," Molly continued and pushed her gently towards him.  Ginny reached out and shook his hand, as he nodded curtly, but said nothing.  She imagined he had looked very much like Lucius had when he was younger; with piercing eyes and hair that was almost white.  She couldn't tell if it had originally been that color, or turned white from age.  There was something about his look that made her skin crawl, and she hurriedly pulled her hand back and turned to the older woman standing next to him.

"And this is his wife, and Draco's grandmother, Drucilla Black," Molly continued.  

Ginny nodded and shook the woman's hand as well, "Nice to meet you," she said politely, and the woman echoed the greeting, Ginny nodded and retreated quickly back to her seat, wondering what was going on.  This was not her idea of a pleasant afternoon, stuck in a room with two generations of Malfoys, and her grandparents and parents.  Ordinarily, she would have been thrilled to see her grandmother, but right now, she was on her list of people she would rather not see for as long as possible.  She pulled a chair up next to the sofa, and sat in it, her mother on her left. 

"Now," William started and pulled out a spherical object, placing it in the center of the table.  "I have read and re-read the conditions of this agreement, and I can find no loopholes, not to say it isn't valid." He pulled some papers out of a briefcase and set it on the table.  "This meeting is not to authenticate the actual promise itself, but to sign the necessary papers, and obviously look at the agreement itself." He placed his hand on the sphere.  "What I have here is a pensieve, it contains the actual agreement inside. Do I hear any objections to opening it?" 

"Just get on with it," Narcissa's father snapped, "I don't have all day, I'm an old man, I'd just like to get this over with, and get home.  This is a waste of time!"

"You were the one who put the deal in place!" Ginny's grandfather retorted, "it is you who were in debt to me, not the other way around!  Just live with it, and let us go through the necessary steps!"

His eyes flashed, and he turned back to William, "Fine," he snapped, obviously upset at the fact that someone dare remind him this was all his entire fault.

"Now I understand that you might not like everything you see in here…" William started, and Ginny took her eyes off the pensieve when she felt someone watching her, and looked up to catch Draco's eye.  He smirked and turned his attention to Mr. Bloor.  "But we do have to get through it all, so if there are no unnecessary interruptions, we should be done with it as quickly as possible."  

He opened the pensieve and as Ginny watched, she slowly saw the room disappear, and she found herself in a very old, plain kitchen.  There were four people in the room, two of which she recognized immediately as her grandparents, and as she watched her grandmother she was shocked to see how closely her own mother resembled her.  Two others were seated at a table, a bag of money on the table between them, they were holding hands, coffee cups sitting in front of them.  

Ginny's grandmother was busy enchanting brushes to wash the dishes for her before she too took a seat at the table.  She reached out to see if she could touch anything in front of her, and then scolded herself, of course she couldn't, it was just a memory, yet it seemed so real.

~*Start Flash Back*~

_"You owe a thousand galleons," Paul said as he took a sip of his coffee, "I won't accept just half of it." _

_"We… don't have the rest," Drucilla responded, looking down at the bag between them, "this is all we have."_

"Well it's not good enough," he snapped and pushed the bag back.  "We agreed that we would loan you the money and you would repay us within three months!"

"What are we supposed to do? We don't have the money!" Alucard responded.  "What do you want?"

"My money," he answered evenly and looked at them across the table, "I suppose I'll just have to go to Gringotts and have your pay checks sent to me directly…"

"No!" Alucard said quickly, "If you do that then we won't have anything to live on!"

"That's not my problem," came the response from Paul. 

"What if…what if we gave you something else?" Drucilla spoke up.

"What could you give us?" Alice asked, sitting down next to her husband, taking his hand. 

Drucilla looked over at her husband, "Well…"

He sighed and placed a hand on her stomach, and watched her, a silent agreement going on between them, and he looked up and said finally, "Drucilla is pregnant, you can have our son."

"Your son?" Alice repeated, and looked over at Paul, who nodded, "I suppose that will work.  But you have to promise- it has to be a wizard promise- wizard honor."

He nodded, "of course…"

"And there will be certain terms and conditions," Paul continued. 

"Just name them," Alucard said quickly, "We'll agree to them."

"They must marry before his seventeenth birthday," he said, "They must produce a child, and must be married three years." He paused. "And it must be passed down from generation to generation until it is fulfilled."

"Never!" He snapped angrily, "I will never agree to that, if we promise this now and it does not get fulfilled, we will not be in debt to you for the years to come!"  

"Fine," Paul shrugged, "I can always contact Gringotts; you will just have to live on a smaller salary, move into a smaller house, make new friends… it doesn't bother me."

"If I had known you would be like this Paul, I would have never asked you for money!" He snapped angrily. 

"I learned from you…remember Alucard?" He said as he watched him, "all those years…you told me how to be a good businessman, and now when the tables are turned you don't like it." 

Alucard glared at him, fuming, Drucilla paled as she looked over at her husband, who's hand had dropped from her stomach onto his own lap, his shoulders tense, his jaw set, "Fine," he said after a long time, "I'll agree to those terms."  He glanced over at his wife, and something flashed in his eyes but was gone a second later.  "I'll agree to those terms," he said again, with a little more conviction.  "But our debt must be cleared after that." 

Paul nodded, "Agreed," he replied, and pulled out a quill, and started to write down the agreement, including everything they had agreed on.  When he was done, they both signed and dated it, sealing it with their wands, and then they both touched the tips of their wands together, and a flash of light came out from each, clouding the view of anything else.  When it was over, they both slipped their wands back into their pockets.

"It was nice doing business with you," Alucard said curtly, and he stood up, pulling his wife up with him, leaving the room, without looking back or saying anything else. 

~*End Flash Back*~

The memory ended as the pensieve closed, and there was a, eerie silence in the air.  Ginny shifted, still not sure she believed what she had seen.  "Now then," William said, breaking the silence, "I have the original document here…signed and dated." He set it out on the table, "It is authentic; we have checked it for flaws, and it is iron clad and completely binding."  He watched everyone, and when no one moved to double check the document, or say anything, he cleared his throat and said, "Right, so, all we have to have done is these two documents signed, by both Mr. Black and Mr. Lemmons, then both Ginny and Draco."  He placed a rather expensive looking quill on the table, "I will notarize it," he added as he waited for someone to step forward.

"What…what if I don't sign it now?" Ginny asked as she looked up, brought of the daze she was still in, her eyes flickering up from the closed pensieve to the piece of paper laying on the table.

William frowned, "Well Ginny, the papers have to be signed today.  They need to be processed, and it won't be long before Draco here turns 17.  He turns seventeen in July," he replied. 

Ginny took a deep breath, and looked over at her parents.  "Just sign Ginny," Molly said softly as she watched her, "there is nothing else we can do." 

"Draco," Lucius said, and cocked his head towards the quill, "sign, and get this over with." He scowled as he watched the document, and Draco stepped over to it, picking up the quill.  He studied it for a minute.  "Don't just stand there like an idiot," Lucius scowled, "Sign the bloody paper so we can get out of this hellhole." 

Ginny glanced over at her mother who quickly tensed and held her head a little higher, "Go on, after Draco is done Ginny," she said tensely, and Ginny sighed, stood up, and stepped over to the table. 

Draco leaned down over the paper and signed with a flourish, _Draco Malfoy_.  He then dated it and handed the pen to Ginny with a smirk on his face, "Here you go _darling_," he said in a mocking tone. 

Ginny glared and pulled the quill away from him, and brought it down to the document, pausing an inch above the paper, letting the tip of the quill hover for a minute.  She looked over at her parents, who nodded solemnly, and she quickly brought it down and signed her name, her signature missing the usual flourish, and looking rather plain next to Draco's.  When she had signed it, she put down the pen and backed up slowly, and sat down, biting her lip, trying not to cry. 

Alucard stepped forward and signed his name quickly, his signature slanted and rushed, before throwing the quill toward Paul, who caught it, with an angry look on his face, the ink leaving a stain on his hand.  He too signed the paper before he handed it back to William.  "Very good," William said with a smile, his cheeriness lost on the group, "Well then…" He put the paper back in his brief case and closed it after notarizing it.  "I wish you all a good summer…" He shook everyone's hand and grabbed a handful of floo powder, and shouted clearly, "Ministry of Magic!"

When he had gone, Lucius stood up and said, "Come Draco, Narcissa, it is time to go."  He did not waste his time on the formal goodbyes, he simply walked out the door, careful to hold his robes up slightly so they did not drag on the floor, which he scowled at in distaste.  Narcissa followed, wordlessly, too wrapped up in her own thoughts to say goodbye.  Draco, after scowling at Ginny and the Weasleys, left the room as well.  The Blacks had slipped out while William was using floo powder to get to the Ministry, and all that was left of them were their empty chairs. 

Molly sighed as she began to straighten up.  No one knew what to say; finally Paul broke the silence, "Insufferable lot," he said.  "I can't believe I even lent them money in the first place."

Alice frowned and looked at him, "Oh be quiet Paul, it's been a long day, let it go, I'm sure no one wants to talk about this anymore." 

Ginny nodded and stood up, "I'm…I'm going to my room," she said and hurried up the stairs, determined not to cry in front of them.  

"Maybe I should go see if she's okay," Molly said standing up, "I'm sure this all upset her very much…" 

"Well of course it did! It's a Malfoy," Paul said with a frown as he settled back against the cushions.

"Leave her be," Alice said after giving her husband a look, "She'll just want time to herself…to think, and I'm sure we're the last people she wants to see after all this." 

Molly sighed, "I suppose you're right, I better get dinner started…Ron will be back soon with Harry and Hermione, and Fred and George said they were closing up the joke shop early to come home for dinner…" She looked slightly frazzled as she stood up and headed into the kitchen.

Arthur, who had been silent during the whole ordeal, not trust himself not to lash out at the Malfoys, now spoke up, "I'll help you." He stood and followed his wife into the kitchen, everyone lapsing into silence again.


	4. Snape and Percy

**~Chapter Four~**

Draco woke up the next morning with a headache and rolled over in bed, burying his face in the pillows, trying to ignore the sunlight streaming in through his bedroom window.  The night had been long and had included a lot of screaming back and forth, between his parents, behind closed doors of course.  The Malfoys and Blacks had never been a quiet group, and when together, they could be heard throughout Malfoy manor.  Finally, after realizing he was not going to get to sleep, Draco rolled out of bed, and proceeded to get ready.  His father had promised him a long afternoon, including more potions work, with a promise that instead of waiting for the week to be up, he would send for Severus Snape as soon as possible.  This was of course not how he had envisioned his summer, and dreaded spending the days inside, slaving away over a hot cauldron.  Of course his father hadn't understood, he had simply replied that the marriage to a Weasley had complicated issues, and that he should learn to show his support to the dark side so no one could question his motives, or if he would in fact join the dark side.  Yawning, Draco pushed this out of his mind, as he opened up his wardrobe and pulled out the usual outfit: pants and a white shirt, with his robes to go on top, something his father required, even on blistering summer days.

After a short bath and a few minutes getting ready, Draco headed down the stairs, the harsh tones already reaching his ears.  He braced himself as he pushed open the doors to the dining room, nodded to his parents and grandparents, and took a seat in a chair next to his mother.  Without a word, he picked up a piece of toast and started to butter it, and a second later the harsh tones started again.

"I can't believe you didn't even argue with them!" Lucius snapped, "That scene in the penseive was pathetic," he spat angrily, as he watched his father-in-law.  The unopened Daily Prophet was sitting in front of him, and Draco leaned over, looking at the headline, trying to ignore what was going on around him.

"Times were different," Draco's grandfather answered cooly, "I was desperate, don't say what you would have done; you weren't there." 

The banter went on for a few more minutes, only to be interrupted by a house elf tugging gently on Lucius's sleeve. "Master," he said in a soft squeak.  

Lucius brought his arm back, striking the house elf across the side of the face, "What do you want? Can't you see I'm in the middle of breakfast?"

"There is someone at the door for you.  He says his name is Severus Snape," the house elf responded, as he cowered in front of Lucius, hoping not to get smacked again.

"Good, very good," Lucius said and stood up, and walked briskly out to the front hall, where he saw Snape.  Draco followed behind, having abandoned his toast.  

"Severus," Lucius said shaking his hand. 

Severus Snape nodded, "Lucius," he turned and nodded to Draco, "Draco."

Draco nodded in greeting and stood back, eyeing his potions teacher.  He wasn't surprised to find that he looked exactly the same; tall, black hair that ended at his chin, and hung straight down either side of his face.  His robes were long, black, and well fitted, buttoning all the way up to his neck.  His stance was rigid, and his expression seemed to be set in stone, the same stony expression as always, that never seemed to give away what he was thinking.  Although, Draco mused, that was one of the things that had probably made him a good death eater.  He was brought back from his thoughts by the sound of his father's voice, "and hopefully he can be a potions master by the time he's left Hogwarts-"

"Impossible," Snape interjected, "He's too young to start to learn that, and it takes many years of careful training.  He hasn't even finished his potions work at Hogwarts."

"I'm sure he can do it," Lucius said with a slight edge to his voice.

Snape shook his head.  "It is impossible-for anyone, I don't know why you are so eager to push him into things he's not ready for, but I can not-and will not- start his training at such a young age."

"I'm sure you understand as well as I do," Lucius started, in a frigid tone, "that once this marriage to this Weasley takes place, where his loyalties lie will be in question.  This will make it clear that his lies on the right side-Voldemort's side."

"Maybe he is too young to know where they lie," Snape said in an equally frigid tone, "have you ever considered letting him finish school and deciding for himself?  As I should know, these decisions should not be rushed into."

Lucius's eyes flashed, "He is _my_ son, and he will follow in my footsteps!" His voice echoed through the hall and caused even Draco to cringe. 

"If you would like, I will tutor him to get him ready for next year," he said, "But I will not start training-this is an absurd idea." 

"You will start, and he will follow in my footsteps," With an angry glance, Lucius turned and walked back into the dining room, calling over his shoulder, "you may use the dungeons."

"I didn't know you taught during the summer, Dumbledore not paying you enough?" Draco smirked, as he looked over at Snape. 

"What I get paid or why I chose to come is none of your concern Mr. Malfoy," he said evenly.  "Now, if you would show me to the dungeons we can begin."

Draco led him over to a set of descending stairs, "If this is impossible, why are you staying?" He questioned as he started down the stairs.

"It is an impossible task; I will not start to train you, I don't know what your father was thinking, but, judging by your grades last year, you could use the help," He said and when they had come down to the dungeons, he followed Draco into a dimly lit room with a table in the center, a cauldron already set up and shelves and shelves of various ingredients lining the walls, "_Lumus_," he said and the room lit with a soft glow, "Just like in the classroom you will address me as Professor Snape." 

Draco rolled his eyes, "Yes _professor._"

Severus noticed a stack of books sitting on the table and picked them up, "What are these for?" he asked as he opened one. 

"Oh just some light reading I guess," Draco shrugged, "My father gave them to me to read.  Be careful, that mind controlling one actually can control your mind." 

Severus sighed and set the books aside, "I see.  Well, none of those books will help you; just forget them."  He started to pull out containers of ingredients and set them next to the cauldron.  "I trust your summer has been an interesting one?"

"As interesting as can be expected when you find out you are engaged to your enemy," Draco said dryly as he inspected the labels on the jars.  Porcupine quills, lacewing flies, leeches, powdered bicorn horn, knotgrass, fluxweed, jobberknoll, all ingredients he recognized, and a few other bottles, who's labels were worn away and unreadable, or something Draco didn't recognize.

"I see, young Ms. Weasley then?" he asked as he rearranged the bottles slightly, staring at each one for a moment, putting a few back.  

"Ginny," he frowned, "an annoying, insufferable, nitwit."  Draco watched as Snape rearranged the bottles and said, "What exactly are we making?" 

"Nothing right now Mr. Malfoy, but if you'd be patient you would see," he said irritably, and handed him a quill and a piece of parchment, "Now take notes as go over the properties and uses…" 

Draco smirked and pushed the parchment away, "I never take notes."

"Perhaps that is your problem," he said, pushing him back to him.  "You are starting today, now take notes," he repeated as he started in on the properties of jobberknoll.

After two hours of going through nearly all the potions on the shelves, Snape paused, and said "You may have a break before we continue on."

Draco watched him for a minute before saying, "You once said you could put a stopper on death- does that work?"

"In some cases, why the interest?  Still trying to back out of your wizarding promise?" Snape asked as he sat down in a chair, and studied him.

"If it means I don't have to marry Weasley, then yes," he responded. 

"A wizarding promise-or Wizard Honor can not be broken, and the death can not be stopped.  It is a mutual agreement between two wizards-or witches-and I'm sure as your father has told you, is ironclad and cannot be broken or delayed by spells or charms.  Even dark magic has yet to grasp the full intensity of it," he replied.  "Once it is made, it can not be broken, even if the two parties involved wish to terminate the agreement." 

"Nothing is that ironclad," Draco frowned.  "Nothing can be that absolute."

"You'd be surprised," Snape replied, "wizard honor used to be used on a daily basis by those wishing to make their promise binding.  Of course at the time, it was still not completely known at how absolute the promise was, and many died as result of breaking those promises.  As time wore on, fewer and fewer people began to use them, and now they are rarely heard of.  The only promises like yours that still exist have been passed down from generation to generation."

"How anyone can make a promise or a decision like that that could affect generations escapes me," Draco said bitterly.

"Why? It is done everyday," Snape told him, "What do you think marriage or children or the choice of whose side you take in a particular battle is? Everything you do affects everyone else."

"I suppose that's true," Draco responded after some hesitation, "I still don't believe someone should be allowed to make a decision that determines the fate of someone else."

"Then, perhaps Mr. Malfoy, you should have chosen death," Snape replied, "For everything you do determines the fate of someone or something."

"Well, if every decision determines the fate of someone, than even death affects the fate of someone else," he responded as he watched his professor.

The sides of Snape's mouth turned up slightly in one of his rare smiles, barely visible, "True, Mr. Malfoy, but only one's actions while living can alter the fate of someone else after they have gone."

While Draco thought about the statement that had just be made, Snape stood up, "I think we have done enough for the day, I will see you tomorrow Mr. Malfoy."  Draco nodded absently as he stared at the stone wall, too lost in thought to even notice Snape leave the room.

~*~

"Virginia Weasley you can't stay in there all day!" Molly frowned as she knocked on the door, "You have to let us in sometime; Hermione needs to get to her things and dinner will be ready soon…"

"Not hungry," Ginny called in a flat tone.  After the Malfoys had left, Ginny had run up to her room and locked herself in.  Granted, Ginny knew even the lock on her door couldn't keep her mother from coming in, but she hoped it could at least keep her at bay for a while.  She really didn't feel like seeing anyone, particularly her grandmother, and was definitely not in the mood to talk.

"Open this door right now," Molly said in a threatening tone, her patience having run out after three hours of trying to coax her to open the door.  "If you don't open it, I will…" she warned.

Ginny stared blankly at the wall, ignoring her mother as she slumped down more in her chair.  Molly raised her wand and stopped only when Alice put a hand on her wand, "Don't," she told her softly, "Let me try and talk to her, opening the door won't help anything."

Molly frowned, "I don't think she wants to talk to you.  She blames this on you, you know…" she said as she watched her mother. 

"I know that," she responded and went to knock on the door. 

"Maybe it's better if you leave," Molly said, stopping her hand with her own, so that her mother's knuckles hit the palm of her hand.

"Avoiding the issue won't help anyone Molly," Alice said softly as she watched her daughter, "You know that.  Just let me talk to her, and then if she really wants me to leave, I will."

Molly sighed and nodded, "Fine."  She tucked her wand back into the pocket of her robes and turned to walk down the hall, looking over her shoulder worriedly as her mother gently waved her hand at her, shooing her away.  

Alice knocked on the door again, "Ginny dear?"  She said softly as she rested her hand on the doorknob, "Can I come in? We need to talk, and I know you don't want to talk to me right now…so maybe you could just listen," she suggested. 

Ginny sighed, opened the door, and then sat back down in her chair again staring at the wall, "What?" She asked tonelessly. 

She sat down on the bed, "I just wanted to apologize Ginny," she said, watching her, "It wasn't supposed to turn out this way…if your grandfather and I had known-"

"Well you didn't know!" Ginny looked over at her.  "What made you think you had the right to promise something that could effect other generations?"

Alice sighed.  "Things were…different then, Ginny.  Wizarding Honor was used all the time…it wasn't as rare, or as big of a deal as it is now.  We didn't know how binding it would be."  She put her hand gently on Ginny's shoulder, and Ginny shrugged it off an angry look in her eyes.  

"Why? Why with the Blacks?" Ginny asked with a frown.  "You had to have known…"

"We didn't know Ginny," Alice assured her.  "Ff we had, we wouldn't have even have been in this situation." She frowned, "What did you expect us to do, Ginny?  Tell the future? We're not seers, we didn't exactly consult tea leaves or anything."  She frowned. 

"Maybe you should have!" Ginny shot back angrily.

Alice paused and then said sternly, "this might not be the best thing Ginny, and I'm not saying it is, but I am sorry.  You can choose to accept that or not!" She stood up, a frown on her face, "Your grandfather and I are leaving now; you know how to reach me if you want to talk."  She stood up and left the room, leaving the door half open. 

Ginny turned back to the wall, tears stinging her eyes.  She knew she had been awful to her grandmother, but at the moment wasn't ready to forgive her, and although she felt bad about it, there was nothing she could do to change that.  Picking up a pillow on the bed she hugged it close and buried her head in it, starting to cry. 

"Ginny?" Fred said as he stepped into the door, and shut it gently walking over to her, "I heard about what happened," he commented and flopped down on her bed. "I brought something to cheer you up."  He turned over a bag on the bed.  "Here we have Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Beans…Chocolate Frogs, lots of those…Angelina says girls like chocolate when they're upset."  He smiled.  "And Licorice wands…I think George and I bought the whole store." He grinned.  "Anything you could want is here."  He paused and watched her, and gently rubbed her back.  "It'll be okay Gin," he said softly. 

"No it won't!" Ginny frowned and leaned into him.  "Everyone says it will be, but it _won't_." 

Fred sighed, sat down on the bed, and pulled her next to him, and Ginny got up and curled up next to him, wiping her eyes as she started to unwrap a Licorice Wand, sticking it in her mouth.

Fred sighed, "Ginny, you know none of us would let anything happen to you.  Everyone will be watching the two of you so closely that he couldn't try anything even if he wanted to- Mr. Malfoy either.  And if he does, George and I have some new gadgets cooking in the basement of the joke shop." He winked, "Just don't tell Mum."

She took another bite of the Licorice Wand and laughed slightly.  "Good," she said and finished it off, picking up another chocolate frog and biting into it, discarding the card onto the bed.  "How's the joke shop coming?" she asked, changing the subject. 

Fred shrugged, "It's coming.  It's slowly getting there… the people who come in seem to like it though."  He shrugged again and stole one of her chocolate frogs.  "We're still trying to work a few kinks out…" He looked over at her, "You interested in being a test subject?"  His eyes twinkled as he watched her. 

"No way," She wrinkled her nose.  "The last time I was your test subject, I turned green."

Fred laughed, "But you looked so cute," He tweaked her nose and then pulled away.  "I need to go down and visit with Mum, she says she misses seeing us."  He laughed, "I bet it's a lot more quiet around here with us gone.  Come down for dinner okay?  I think Percy is supposed to be coming too, and it would mean a lot to Mum.  She didn't mean for this to happen you know."

Ginny sighed and lay back on the bed picking up another sweet, and eating it, "I guess I'll come down.  But only because you asked me to, not to make Mum feel better," she replied.  

"Good girl," He smiled and walked out, then stuck his head back in and said, "Oh the candy is our little secret- Mum would kill me-and you- if she knew we were eating it before dinner!" With a wink he left the room, leaving Ginny alone once again.

Sitting on her bed, she continued to eat the candy, leaving the wrappers scattered around the room.  She wasn't sure what about chocolate and sugar was making her feel better, and at the moment she didn't care.  Popping another chocolate frog into her mouth, she swept all the wrappers into a bag and closed it, stuffing it into her trashcan, under some old school papers so her mother wouldn't see.  Opening her door, she headed down stairs and paused at the top of the steps.

"I saw the new Nimbus!" she heard Ron say as his voice drifted up to her ears, and then heard Harry's chime in. 

"It's amazing!  Maybe we'll get them for the quidditch team at school?" 

"I doubt it," Hermione responded, "The school has better things to spend the money on." 

"What's better than Quidditch?" she heard George respond.

"Oh lots of things, like politics, an education, books…"

"Boring stuff…" Fred mumbled as Ginny walked into the room, and he looked up, "Hey Ginny."

"Hey guys," Ginny smiled and sat down on the couch, squeezing in between Harry and George, "How was Hogsmeade yesterday?"

"It was alright," Hermione shrugged, "Ron and Harry spent most of the day drooling over broomsticks, and then refused to come to the bookstore with me!" She frowned and then brightened, "a new Gilderoy Lockhart book came out!"

"I thought he went loony," George said bringing a finger up next to his head and spinning it around, "It's he at St. Magoo's?"

"It's _Mungo's_," Hermione corrected with a touch of smugness to her voice.  

George rolled his eyes, "Whatever…he's still there isn't he?"

"Yes," Hermione said, a touch of sadness in her voice, "but apparently he was working on this book before everything happened, and the manuscript was lost for a while and then they found it…"

"You're forgetting that he never actually did any of those things Hermione," Harry pointed out, "He was a big fraud, he only stole things that other people did and put his name to them."

Hermione frowned, "I know, but he is still an excellent writer and-"

"Has the most charming smile!" Fred giggled, imitating Hermione. 

"I do _not_ giggle!" Hermione frowned again as she watched him, "and if I did, it wouldn't sound that silly."

Ginny laughed as George rolled his eyes, mimicking Hermione, who let out a small "Hrmph," trying to hold back the amused smile that was tugging at the sides of her mouth.  Ginny shifted in her seat, suddenly feeling sick to her stomach, realizing that maybe eating all that candy hadn't been a smart idea. 

"You okay?" Harry asked as he noticed her pale, "Need me to get you a glass of water or something?"

Ginny shook her head, "No," she said meekly, and suddenly felt like she was going to throw up.  "I just…feel like I'm going to throw up," she said.  

"If you do, don't throw up on me," Fred said, scooting farther away, "If you need to throw up throw up in-" he looked around.  "The fireplace, that's off all the furniture and can be cleaned easily…"

Ginny nodded, and the words were barely out of his mouth before she jumped forward, throwing up into the fireplace just as Percy appeared in it, obviously having used floo powder to get to the Burrow from the ministry.  "Ginny!" Percy snapped as soon as he realized what was happening and Ginny had sat back on her heels, feeling dizzy, "These were my new robes! They were just cleaned!"

Fred and George started laughing, and pointed at Percy.  "Welcome home," the twin said chuckling, and he shot them a look, as Mrs. Weasley came into the room. 

"Percy! You made it!"  She stopped short, "What happened?" She looked from him to Ginny.

"Ginny got sick Mrs. Weasley," Hermione spoke up. 

"I would think that would be obvious!" Percy snapped impatiently.  "All over my new robes Mum!  I had just cleaned them too! Now looked at them! They're ruined!"

Molly sighed, "They'll be fine, Percy…" She waved her wand at the fireplace, and it cleaned itself at once, now just as spotless as before.  She turned to Percy, and waved her wand at him, his robes becoming clean once again, "See?" 

Fred laughed, "You should have left him like Mum! The look worked for him!"

Percy looked at his brother, scowling, "I can see you're still the same as always…" 

"Are you alright Ginny?" Molly asked, ignoring her two sons, and knelt down next to her. 

"I think so, just an upset stomach," Ginny said, still pale, and she looked over at Percy. "I'm sorry about your robes.  I didn't mean to, but you did pick a really bad time to floo in."

He sighed in response, "It's never a good time to come home," he said dryly, and looked over at her and then continued more affectionately, "maybe you should go lay down; you don't want to get sick on someone else."

Ginny sighed, and Hermione quickly stood up, "I'll help her upstairs."  She gently helped Ginny up, "Come on Ginny." Hermione led her to the stairs, and up the steps.

"Nice to see you again Percy," Harry said when Ginny had left, "How are things at the Ministry?"  He shifted his seat slightly.  Harry had never been comfortable around Percy, and the fact that he had adamantly been against the Order of the Phoenix did not make it any easier to be around him.

"It's fine," Percy nodded curtly and took a seat, "Just doing my job the best I can."

Hermione came back downstairs and sat down again, surprised at the eerie silence in the room, "She's going to be okay; I just think she had too many sweets." She looked over at George and Fred, "And I wonder where she got them."

"Not from us," Fred smiled, "why would we bring home candy?"

"You know we never go in that store, candy is bad for you," George said solemnly, "We learned that from Percy.  The key to succeed is to work your hardest, and to do that you need to be able to be in good health, and candy can wreak havoc on your system."  He nodded matter-of-factly and turned to grin at Percy. 

Percy frowned, "Well it's true! You obviously wouldn't know anything about that from the state of that joke shop you run.  You should never have left Hogwarts.  How do you expect to get anywhere in life? To get a good job?"

"We'll manage," Fred said and frowned, a tense silence hanging in the air as they all fell silent.

"I heard about the Wizarding Honor," Percy spoke up, "and I heard that Ginny signed the papers." 

Harry nodded, "They both signed the other day…she was really upset for a while, but she seems better now."

"I think it was a bad move," Percy frowned.  "Just think of all the repercussions."

"She didn't _choose_ this Percy," Ron frowned, "You know that, you know what a wizard honor is." 

"Yes I know, and I can't believe Mum and Dad let her sign," Percy commented. "Think of how this will look to the Ministry!  With Dad working there, and me working there, suspicions will be aroused."

Hermione frowned.  "What are you saying Percy?"

"All I'm saying is, if it had been up to me, she would have never signed those papers," he responded, "it'll be bad for all of us to be connected to the dark side in anyway."

"So you would choose to let her die?" George said looking at him, his mouth dropping open, "I didn't even think _you_ would want that Percy."

He bristled, "I'm not saying that, I'm just saying that if it were up to me this wouldn't be happening, and those papers would still be sitting on William's desk for further inspection."

"They did their inspection," Harry pointed out, "It was ironclad; everyone knew that.  There was no way around it."

Percy shrugged.  "All I'm saying is that it's going to hurt our reputation."

"Your _reputation?_" Fred snapped, getting mad, "I can't believe we're talking about our sister having to marry a Malfoy and you're worried about _reputation_." He turned to George.  "Remind me never to get a job at the Ministry of Magic, I'd like to turn out to be a decent human being.  Of course," he said and glanced over at Percy, "it's debatable whether some of their employees _are_ human, and I'm talking about the wizards."

Percy fumed, "I'll have you know that I hold a highly coveted and important office in the Ministry!  The wizarding world would cease to exist if not for people like those that I work with!  I'd watch your tongue if I were you, Fred Weasley, seeing as how you aren't going anywhere in life!" His tone was angry and harsh, but Fred continued to glare at him.

"At least I'll have friends and people who love me, and I won't alienate my family!" Fred snapped back angrily, getting up and glaring at his brother, "I can't believe you Percy!  You get some stupid job, and it all goes to your head!  If Dad could hear you talk like this, he'd kill you himself!"

Percy opened his mouth to retort when his mother walked into the room.

"Dinner's ready," Molly said, walking into the living room, and frowned when she saw two of her sons glaring at each other.

"It smells very good Mrs. Weasley," Harry said standing, and smiled as he followed Hermione, George, and Ron into the kitchen to sit down.

"Yes, very good," Percy said tensely as he turned to look at his mother and then walked into the kitchen, an angry look on his face, his jaw set.

Fred frowned and started to walk into the kitchen when his mother stopped him, "No fighting, Fred," she warned.  "Tensions are high enough without you adding it to it."

"But Mum!" He said, exasperated.  "I can't believe you'll just let him say things like that!  Do you even know what he said?"

"Yes Fred," she said calmly, "and I don't agree, and I'm upset that he's saying them, but tonight I just want all of us to get along.  We have guests remember."

He frowned, "Who, Harry and Hermione? They're practically family!"

"Still, they're guests," she said and sighed.  "Fred, just try not to argue with your brother, not right now.  I'll have a talk with him later. I have enough on my plate with Ginny right now." 

He sighed, "Fine," he said, frustrated, and walked into the kitchen, taking his seat at the table silently. 

Molly sighed and started to serve the food, trying to ignore the stony silence between her sons.  The only conversation involved her, Arthur, and occasionally Harry and Hermione.  When dinner was over, she was relieved for the first time to see Percy leave, and Fred and George went out to fly for a while.  With Ginny upstairs asleep, and Ron, Harry, and Hermione quietly playing chess in the living room, she could finally sit down and relax in a large chair in living room, eventually falling asleep.


	5. Robes and the Ministry Ball

**_Quick Author's Note:_**

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I do realize this story seems to be going slow- and it is! And it will be for a few chapters more…and for that I apologize. I did try to speed things up, and each time I did, it sounded awful, and awkward. I don't know if it was just the way I was writing it or what…but having the first chapters start out slow (Maybe too slow for some of you **Shrugs**) was the only way I could make it sound alright.  While I realize that the comments some of you made were justified, and within reason, and they did not offend me, if the story is going to slow for you…simply skip a few chapters, or don't read it J.  

****

**_~*Firefly*~_**

****

**_RunAway- _Thanks for all the help and support! This would not be up without you! **hugs****

Ami-gryffindor89- Thank you for the kind words…hopefully I'm updating soon enough for you! 

**_Liz-_ Sorry for almost making you cry, that wasn't my intention…but I'm glad you liked it!**

**_Mystery-_ I didn't realize you still read anything that I wrote…but thanks for the nice comments ****J hope you had a good new year!**

**_Juniper- _thanks for the review!**

**_Bladefanatic-_ I haven't decided what's going to happen between Ginny and Draco yet, in terms of them actually falling in love.  They might just find some equal ground where they can at least tolerate each other. But thanks for the suggestions ****J**

**_Sabe-_** **Thanks for the review!**

**_grahamcrackers-_ I see your point, and hopefully the above note ((**points upward**)) will help to explain things a little better. I do see your point- don't worry!! You are not alone in thinking that.  However, I am glad that you like it, and hopefully you will continue to read, but if you decide it's moving at too slow of a pace for you, I understand.**

**_Ann_- thank you for the review, Gin and Draco's relationship will hopefully start to pick up a little later in the story…(read above note).  **

**And now…onto chapter five!  **

**~Chapter 5~**

The next afternoon, after a long potions session with Snape, and having to listen to another argument between his father and mother over the current marriage situation, something Draco was getting sick of hearing about, he was standing in Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, trying to find some new dress robes for the ministry dance.  The room was brightly colored, with fabric everywhere, and a special section of robes made just for Hogwarts students.  Draco was currently standing in front of a three-way mirror, trying to decide which dress robes he wanted.  The ones he had on now was a silver-gray color and made of extremely soft material.  It buttoned up the front, stopping right before his neck, and at the moment his father was discussing with the salesman about getting the Malfoy Crest embroidered on it.  

The second set of robes was green and trimmed in black.  After looking at them both in the mirror, he decided on his traditional silver-gray color, discarded the green robes to the side, and slid the first one on again to make sure it still looked good.  Tugging at the sleeves gently he surveyed himself in the mirror, pleased with the reflection that stared back at him.  He took the robes off and put them in aside for the cashier to ring up, and was about to leave when he noticed Ginny over the top of one of the racks.  She was frowning and pushing away something her mother was holding up to her.  Draco walked over and smirked, "Looking for something for the dance?"

"Just some robes to go over," Ginny said, not bothering to look at him, "We're getting my dress next."

Draco nodded, "You're actually shopping at a robes store that is not second-hand?" He put his hand over his heart in mock surprise.

Ginny frowned and turned her attention back to her mother, trying to ignore him as she pushed away some pea green robes and tensed.  "Don't you have anything better to do?" She snapped. 

"There is nothing I would rather be doing than harassing my fiancé," he drawled with a smirk.

Ginny sighed and looked over at her mother, who seemed to be oblivious to all the insults Draco was throwing at them, and she decided she just must have decided not to let them get to her.  "Just because we're getting married, Draco, doesn't mean I have to like you."

"Of course not," he replied, and idly searched through a rack, pulling out an emerald green robe and held it up to her, "Hmm…that's your color." He said handing it to her.  

Ginny took it from him and ran her hand over the soft material.  It was much nicer than anything she had ever owned, and she took it off the hanger and slid it on, surprised to see it brought out her eyes.  "See?" Draco said, gently pulling her hair out of the back of it and arranged it so it rested on her shoulders, "It works." 

Molly, who had disappeared in search of more robes walked over and smiled, "Ginny, that's beautiful." She smoothed it out over Ginny's shoulders, looked at the price tag, frowned, and lowered her voice.  "Ginny you know we can't get this," she said softly, "We can't spend this much on a robe you're just going to wear as a jacket…"

Ginny sighed and nodded "I know, I was just trying it on."

Draco who was standing off to the side, watched them talking in hushed voices, and when Ginny placed the robe back on the hanger, he took it from her and added it with his.  "This one too Father," he said and handed them both to him.  Lucius nodded and took them, barely looking at them before he brought them over to be rung up.

"Draco," Molly frowned, "You didn't have to do that; there are plenty of other nice ones here."

Ginny watched him, confused, "She's right, that's an awful lot for you to have to pay…I just wanted to see what it looked like."

"I know," Draco said waving their protests off, "But we are going to be married, and we do have the money, and-" he smirked, "If I have to go with you, I don't want you to show up in some hand me down or second hand robes, I do have a reputation."

She groaned, "You can never just do something nice can you? You always have to have some other reason."

"Of course," he responded, "Being nice is overrated."

Lucius walked over and handed the bag to Draco.  "Here you go," he said.  "They said if we bring it back tomorrow, the crest can be embroidered on…" He looked up and his mouth twitched as he tried not to frown.  "Molly.  Virginia." He nodded to them.

Draco pulled her robe out of the bag and handed it to her, "Here, keep in mind that if you come in a really hideous dress you'll be wearing that the whole time," he said, smirking.

Molly frowned but nodded, "Lucius."  She tried to sound civil and polite, so she then said stiffly, "thank you for the robe for Ginny; that was very nice of you."

"You're welcome," he said, his eyes moving over to Ginny, who looked away from him.  He turned his gaze back to Molly "We'll see you tomorrow night then?" 

She nodded.  "Of course.  We'll be there." 

Lucius nodded curtly.  "Goodbye," he called to them as he turned and started towards the door of the shop.

Draco smirked, "See you tomorrow night."  He headed out after his father.

"Let's go Ginny, we still have to find you a dress," Molly said as she took her hand and pulled her out of the store.  She sighed and let her mother drag her along, watching Draco over her shoulder for a minute, perplexed, and then shrugged it off and turned her attentions to finding a dress. 

~*~

"Would you hold still?"  Molly said impatiently the next afternoon.  She was trying to pin the dress for Ginny, but having trouble as Ginny fidgeted.  "I just have to get these pins in, and then I have the alteration spell right here…" She looked through a book as Ginny sighed, and Hermione gave her a supportive smile.

"I think you look great Gin," Hermione told her as she looked up from their new spells book, determined to have it memorized by the beginning of the school year.

"Are you sure it doesn't look too babyish?" Ginny asked as she looked in the mirror and shifted slightly to get a better view, the pin sticking her.  "Ow!" she cried.

Molly sighed.  "That's what you get for moving! Now stand still. "  She grabbed her wand, and said the spell, watching as the dress became smaller, according to the pins she had put in.  "There." She smiled. "You look beautiful."

Hermione nodded encouragingly, "You look amazing Gin. I love the color."

Ginny smiled slightly and looked in the mirror, and had to admit it didn't look bad.  She had of course gotten it at the second-hand store, but was surprised to find that it didn't look like it was second-hand.  It was a spaghetti strap top, and then continued in a straight line down to the floor.  The dress was a deep emerald green, matching the robe that Draco had gotten her.  Little green beads were sewn around the bodice area in an intricate pattern, and they shimmered slightly when they caught the light.  The neckline was modest, but not too high.  "It is pretty," Ginny said as she smiled into the mirror.  The rest of her outfit had been improvised; her shoes were transfigured from an old pair she had.  Not being able to afford anything expensive, they had bought little packets of beads and weaved them into her hair, which she had put up in a twist.  On her neck was a simple silver chain with a small silver teardrop in the center.  It had been her mother's it was passed onto Ginny.

Molly smiled.  "Now just don't ruin it before we have to go…I need to go get ready, stay out of trouble!"  She called as she disappeared into her room to change.

Ginny sat down on the bed carefully and looked over at Hermione.  "What are you and Ron and Harry going to do while we're gone?" She gently touched her hair, careful to make sure it was all staying up. 

Hermione shrugged.  "I'm not sure, I have a few more books to get through, and Ron and Harry disappeared somewhere, no doubt at the joke shop or playing quidditch or something.  I'll find something to do," she smiled.  "But you have to tell me all about it when you get back." 

"I'm sure it won't be that great," Ginny said, her voice having a hint of nervousness to it.  "I'm not exactly looking forward to it." Pausing, she thought for a moment and then continued, "Maybe if Malfoy wasn't going to be my date I'd be more excited."  She frowned, as she twisted her hands in her lap.

"Just because you're going with him doesn't mean you have to stay glued to his side the whole time," Hermione pointed out, "besides, I'm sure you'll have fun anyway.  I've heard the balls can be a lot of fun, if you're into dancing… which I'm not." She shrugged and looked down at her book again.

"I'm sorry I can't take you."  She frowned as she noticed Hermione quickly look down at her book, "I'd change places with you in an instant; you know that."

Hermione smiled.  "I know, but you look great, you'll have a good time."

"I feel like a princess or something." Ginny laughed.

"Good, you look like one," Hermione grinned and then looked up as Ron came into the room. 

"Hermione, Harry and I are going to make a fire in the backyard and roast marshmallows, Harry says it's a lot of fun, a muggle thing, do you want to join us?" He said and stopped when he saw Ginny and smiled "You look great Gin!" 

Ginny nodded, and forced a slight grin.  "Thanks Ron."

Hermione shrugged.  "Sure, why not?  Maybe we can make s'mores…"

"S'mores?" Ron repeated blankly.

"Another muggle thing, I'll explain it to you later," she said and stood up, closing her book after marking her place.  "Then maybe after that you can quiz me on my spells…"

Ron rolled his eyes.  "S_ummer,_ Hermione, why don't you look that word up? It'll probably say something like 'a season in which all wizards are off from school and have fun and don't do any work.'" 

"Actually, I'm sure it'd say something like, 'the warmest months of the year, including June, July, and August.'  I don't remember anything about fun or work in there… maybe I have the wrong dictionary?" She asked with a smile.

"I think the one Ron was referring to is known as the 'Ron Dictionary', in which all words just conform to what he wants them to," Ginny laughed.

Ron rolled his eyes, "Well at least I have a dictionary named after me," he said with a grin, and Hermione rolled her eyes and pushed past him to go find Harry and prepare everything for the s'mores.  

"Have fun, save me a s'more or whatever they are," Ginny said, a little awkwardly, as she watched him.

Ron nodded, "Sure.  You do look really nice, Gin.  You look all…grown up." He paused for a moment before saying, "Malfoy's lucky."

Ginny nodded, bit her lip, and finally blurted out, "I'm nervous Ron!"

"You'll be fine.  You're not alone remember? You'll be with Mum and Dad in a room full of people, and I'm sure he won't do anything."  Ron assured her.

"That's not what I'm worried about," Ginny said and shrugged, crossing her arms.  "I'm more worried about what people are going to _say_.  I don't want to be there with him Ron, what if everyone doesn't understand that?"

He squeezed her shoulder gently and tilted her head up so she was looking at him.  "Then they're at fault, not you.  It'll be alright," he assured her.  "Just don't let your temper get the best of you," he warned, "that's the worst thing you could do.  Just be calm and try and shrug most of it off.  Not everyone knows what happened or what's going on."

Ginny nodded, and sighed.  "Thanks Ron, I wish you were coming."

"I don't," he grinned "I'd rather be here roasting s'mores, whatever the heck they are." He dropped his hand from her shoulder.  "Dances aren't my thing…I'd rather be doing something else."

She nodded, with a sigh, and hugged him.  "Too bad I can't just stay here with you guys tonight."  

Arthur Weasley stood in the doorway smiling, and cleared his throat, "We should get going Ginny, we don't want to be late." 

Ginny nodded and let go of Ron, who had flushed a deep shade of red.  "And don't forget to hit Malfoy for me," he said with a grin.  "I'd do it for you, but s'mores are calling!" 

Ginny smiled.  "Have fun," she called as she slid her robe on and started downstairs with her father.

"You look beautiful Gin," Arthur told her with a smile.

She smiled.  "Thanks Dad."  She walked into the living room where Molly was waiting.  She had on a cream colored dress, and had pulled her hair up for a change, "You look great Mum."

Molly smiled, "thank you dear, now we should probably get going before we're late…"

Arthur nodded and pulled out the portkey and held it out, letting Ginny and Molly touch it, and a few seconds later they had left the living room and were standing at the entrance to the Ministry building.  Ginny looked up at it, and bit her lip.

"Arthur, Molly," Lucius said as he came up to them, pausing before nodding at Ginny, "Virginia."

"Hello Lucius," Arthur said, trying to sound pleasant.  "How are you?"

"Oh rather bored," he replied.  "I don't think this ball will be interesting; the ministry always cuts corners on everything.  If you want to go to a real ball go to-" he paused.  "Never mind, they wouldn't let you in dressed like _that_." He wrinkled his nose in distaste.

Molly tensed and said, "Shall we go inside?"

Lucius nodded, "Draco," he called, and Draco walked over to them, a bored look on his face. "Why don't you escort Virginia inside?"

"Oh no, that's not necessary!" Ginny said quickly as she looked over at her parents, her eyes pleading for help.

Molly simply nodded.  "That would be nice of him, we'll meet you inside Ginny," Molly said taking Arthur's arm, and followed Luicus and Narcissa, who had joined him by now, inside.

"Virginia.  You look very nice, the green was a good color for you…let's just hope what you have under the robe is as nice as the robe itself."  Draco said as he held his arm out to her. 

Ginny seethed as she looked over at him, "I am _not_ walking in with you until you apologize for that comment!"

"Malfoys do not apologize," he said smoothly as he watched her.

"Well you're going to have to start."

He shrugged, "Fine, I'll just leave you out here, it doesn't make any difference to me if you come in or not, I'm sure there's another girl in there who would be more than happy to be escorted by me."

"Don't count on it," she muttered and sighed, looping her arm through his, deciding that picking her arguments were important.  Besides, she didn't want to cause a scene now, not at the ministry ball.

Draco smirked and started to lead her inside, falling silent.  Ginny sighed as they stopped inside the door, and her robe was taken.  She watched as the man hung it up, and then she felt Draco watching her and turned to look at him, "Something wrong?" she asked, feeling a blush creeping up her cheeks as his eyes ran over her.  Crossing her arms in front of her when she didn't get an answer, she repeated, "Malfoy, is something wrong?"

He shook his head.  "No, you actually don't look bad," he uncrossed her arms and took her arm again.  "Not as good as most of the other people here," he added after a pause, "but not too shabby." 

Ginny smiled slightly, wondering if he had actually complimented her, and she decided to take it as a compliment.  "Thank you."  She looked over at the tailored suit, and loose fitting white shirt.  The jacket of course had the Malfoy crest over the pocket, and she said, "You don't look bad either," she ran her fingers over the crest gently.  "Do you ever wear anything without this?" 

"Yes, but it shows my station." Draco smirked and pushed her hand away, "trying to get an excuse to touch me Weasley?" 

She frowned and flushed, "Of course not!"  She turned and started walking briskly towards the entrance to where the ball was being held, and was prepared to go in by herself, when she felt Malfoy take her arm, and she sighed, looking up at him.

Draco pushed the doors to the room open, and walked in with her.  Ginny bit her lip as she noticed everyone turn and stare at the door, and wondered what they were thinking.  Draco didn't show any sign of being uncomfortable, he simply said, "Would you like something to drink?" 

Ginny nodded, her mouth suddenly dry, "Sure…" she choked out, "that would be nice."

He nodded and walked past a few people who had started whispering, got her a glass of punch, and handed it to her.  "Here you go."

Ginny nodded. "Thanks," she took it and sipped it slowly looking around.  At one end of the room there were round tables and chairs, and at the other tables of food, and a space for dancing and mingling in the middle.  The room was enchanted make everyone feel they were outside, and a band was off to the side against the wall, the sound being magically amplified around the room.  There were a lot of people there already, and she only recognized a few.  The ministry was so big, there was no way she'd be able to recognize them all.

"Draco!" She heard a girl's voice call, and her stomach sank, realizing that it was Pansy Parkinson.  She turned her back to her, as she noticed her walking over to them.

"Pansy," Draco nodded as she came up.

"How are you Draco?" Pansy smiled, her smile faded when she noticed Ginny.  "Why are you here with a _Weasley_?" she snapped.

Draco ignored the question, "Fine," he replied, "And you?"

Pansy waved off the question, "Why are you here with a Weasley, Draco? I asked you a question!"

"I could ask you the same one; you don't have a family member in the ministry."

"I came with a friend!" She frowned.  "At least I'm not with HER!" she pointed at Ginny.

Ginny frowned.  "Shut up Pansy!" she snapped, "Just leave me alone because I don't want to be with him anyway!"

"Then why are you?" Pansy asked, narrowing her eyes. 

"We're getting married," Draco said as he grabbed a glass of punch, and took a sip, "We're engaged." He said it again, seeing Pansy's mouth drop in shock.

"To her? To a Gryffindor?" She shrieked.  "What are you THINKING?" She yelled angrily, "She's a Weasley and a Gryffindor!" 

"Yes I know," Draco replied calmly, "We have to, wizard honor.  Believe me if we weren't forced to, I would never even be around her." He scowled at Ginny.  "Such a goody goody." 

Pansy frowned and glared at Ginny.  "What about me?"

"What about you?" he asked her setting the cup down when he was finished. 

"Well I thought we were going out!" Pansy frowned, "You can't just dump me for _her_."

Draco smirked, "We never were going out Pansy, I never liked you that much.  And as for you being dumped, since we never were 'together', I can't dump you."

Pansy stared at him, her mouth up and she brought her hand up to slap him, but he caught her wrist, "I wouldn't do that if I were you," he said with a frown, his expression hardening, "Why don't you just go and talk to your friends or bug someone else?"

Ginny saw Pansy's eyes flash before she pulled her arm away, and walked away angrily.  "You didn't have to be _that_ mean," Ginny said, even though she didn't feel the least sorry for Pansy. 

He shrugged.  "Would you rather I have gone out with her and let the both of us die?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Well no…" Ginny replied, and looked down into her cup, "But I would rather I didn't have to marry you."  She frowned, "Look at all the people watching us, it's like we're on display."

Draco smirked, "that's what it's like when you're with a Malfoy."

She rolled her eyes.  "Oh get off your high horse Malfoy, you're not _that_ great."

"I don't know about that, I think there are a lot of people- myself included- who would disagree."

Ginny rolled her eyes again and sighed, "You are a stuck-up snob."

"Better a stuck-up snob than a poor Weasley with second-hand robes, and known for opening the Chamber of Secrets," Draco smirked.

Ginny glared at him and held her head a little higher, "That was _not_ my fault, it was all Tom Riddle's doing…"

"Yes but who was dumb enough to write in the diary?"  He inquired pointedly. 

"Leave me alone," Ginny hissed putting down her cup.  "Go run after Pansy and have fun with her, I don't want to see you!"  She turned on her heel and strode away.

He caught up and smirked, "Hit a nerve there did I?"

Ginny looked away from him, too angry to talk to him.

"Oh, so you're not talking to me now? That's VERY grown up," Draco replied.  "And I thought you Weasleys were supposed to be _mature_."

"We are, we just don't sit there and take insults that's all!" Ginny snapped.  "Of course I should have expected that coming from you, you wouldn't even know how to give a compliment!"

Draco frowned, "I can give compliments, if I want to."

She scoffed, "sure you can, I'd like to see you try."

"I can," he said and continued, "you look very nice tonight Ginny."

"Thank you," she replied, and then said, "Of course I only get compliments to prove a point!"  She frowned.  "Being married to you is going to be horrendous."

"You never know, you might like it.  Besides, being married to you won't be any trip for me either," Draco said as he grabbed a drink off a tray, which was being carried by, and took a sip. 

Ginny sighed and fell silent; it wasn't worth arguing about.  She sat down at a table, and looked out at everyone who was dancing, and ignored Draco when he sat down next to her.  A minute later, she heard her name, and looked up to see her father.  "Hi Dad," she smiled.

"Hello," he smiled, and held out his hand.  "Would you like to dance?"

Ginny nodded, took his hand, followed him out onto the floor, and moved into his arms.

Arthur smiled, "are you having a good time?" he asked as he began to dance with her. 

She sighed "Not really- don't get me wrong, the place is beautiful, it's just Draco and I have been fighting nonstop and everyone is staring at us…"

He nodded as they danced.  "A lot of people have been asking questions, but your mother and I have just been saying that it was a matter of Wizard Honor.  Lucius- Mr. Malfoy looks like he is ready to kill every person who asks him," He laughed.

Ginny sighed, "I don't know how I'm going to be able to stand this marriage Dad, I can't even been alone with him for five minutes before we start arguing and…" She sighed again. 

"It'll work out," he told her reassuringly, "You'll find some common ground, or at a least start to tolerate each other.  It's like that in all marriages."

"Not between a Weasley and a Malfoy," she sighed. 

"You know, everyone keeps referring to it as a Weasley/Malfoy marriage…why not just a marriage between two people? Why do you have to define yourself by your last name?"

"Excuse me, may I cut in?" Draco asked as he tapped Arthur on the shoulder.

He nodded.  "Of course," he smiled at Ginny and said, "Just think about what I said, humor me."

Ginny nodded, "sure Dad." She watched him walk away and then turned back to Draco.

"What was that about?" he asked as he put his arm around her waist, and took her hand, pulling her closer than she would have liked.

"Nothing," she responded, "Just talking."

He nodded and started to dance with her, leading her around the floor, "I see."

Ginny bit her lip for a minute and then looked up at him, "Why did you cut in?"

"Not allowed to dance with my fiancé?" He smirked. 

Ginny sighed, "I wish you wouldn't call me that."

"Then what would you like me to call you?  Ginny?"

"Virginia is fine," she replied as she continued to watch him, and without thinking about it, leaned up and pushed some hair out of his eyes, and when he gave her a questioning look, she said hastily, "It was in your eyes."

He smirked, "Sure it was." He continued to dance with her, turning to smirk at everyone who was staring at them, and he leaned down and whispered in her ear, "They must all think we're a cute couple."

"Or the oddest couple they've ever seen," she replied, a shiver going down her spine as she felt his breath on her ear.

Draco shrugged.  "They're probably just staring at me then," he smirked. 

Ginny sighed as they danced the rest of the song in silence, and when it stopped she continued to dance with him, for a second, third, and fourth dance before they went to sit down again.  Ginny was surprised that it had been so pleasant.  Of course, she reminded herself, it was pleasant because she hadn't been talking to him.  Grabbing a plate of food, she sat down at a table, and soon Draco and her parents had joined her.  

As the night wore on, Ginny got tired of making pleasant conversation, and her eyes started to droop.  Molly, noticing this, said, "Maybe we should head home, it doesn't look like Ginny is going to make it."

Arthur nodded, "I will see all of you at work tomorrow," he smiled, and stood up.

"Good bye," Ginny echoed and stood up, leaning into her father, let him lead her out into the hall, where both she and Molly got their outside robes.  Then they all touched the portkey, and a minute later they were at home in the Burrow.

"Hey Gin," Ron said looking up from where he was sitting, "I decided to wait up for you, Harry and Hermione are already in bed, I saved you a s'more." He held out a sticky marshmallow, and chocolate, which was between two graham crackers.

Ginny smiled and took it, "Thanks," she said sleepily.  Ginny took a bite, and frowned as crumbs from the cracker spilled down the front of her dress and she idly wiped them away.  She forgot about them though when she taste of sweet chocolate hit her tongue, followed by the soft fluffy feeling of the marshmallow.  Nodding, she said, "It's good.  I'll tell you everything tomorrow Ron…" She headed up the stairs after giving him a hug and changed before collapsing into bed, falling asleep almost immediately.****


	6. Sick Day

Chapter Six 

A few days later, Draco walked into the room where Professor Snape was sitting.  He looked around the room, surprised to see the cauldron was empty, and there were no ingredients or books on the table.  He looked over at Snape, "What's going on?  You don't have anything out," he frowned, "I don't want to waste my time waiting for you to figure out what is going on?"

"I know nothing is out," Snape replied coolly, "You are to go over to the Weasleys this afternoon.  Ginny is at home sick, and her parents and brothers have to go get their school supplies.  Since you have already gotten yours, your father recommended that you go sit with her, hoping you will both learn to get along."

"My father?" He repeated dumbly as he watched the professor.  "He wouldn't suggest I go over there," he frowned.

"Well, he did, with some coaxing from your mother and Molly, I presume."  Snape stood up.  "We will resume lessons tomorrow, after lunch."  He walked out of the room, and on his way out, handed him a bag of floo powder.  Groaning, Draco headed up the stairs after him, walked over to the nearest fireplace, and threw the powder down, saying, "The Burrow."  A few seconds later, he was standing in the middle of the Burrow, and he looked around, his eyes narrowing.

"Hello Draco," Molly smiled as she walked over to him, "I'm so glad you came to sit with Ginny; she wouldn't want to be alone all afternoon."

"I'm sure she'd rather be alone than with me," he replied, "and I'm not here because I choose to be here."  He frowned. 

Molly nodded.  "Of course.  Well I left some lunch out for the two of you, I hope we won't be gone too long, but you never know how busy Diagon Alley will be."

He nodded and fell silent, scowling as Hermione, Ron, and Harry came down the stairs.  "Malfoy," Ron sneered, narrowing his eyes.

"Weasley."  He nodded curtly, and then said, "Granger…Potter."

"Malfoy," Harry said, obvious distaste in his voice.  Hermione stood next to him, an unpleasant look on her face.

"Well," Molly said, breaking the uncomfortable silence, shooting Ron a look that clearly said that she didn't want him to be rude, "I'll show you to Ginny's room…" She paused at the bottom of the steps to wait for him to follow.  Still scowling, he followed her upstairs, and she paused outside of Ginny's room, "She just has a touch of the flu I believe.  I left some medicine for her by the bed, she needs to take it every two hours, and I just gave her some."

Draco nodded and muttered under his breath, "great, I get to be a nurse."

Molly pushed the door open, and Draco followed her in.  The lights in the room were off, and the only light that came in was through the shades on the window.  The room was neither messy nor clean; books and paper lay all around the room, as did some stuffed animals, and there were pictures on the dresser of her family and friends.  He looked towards the bed, and noticed Ginny, who looked so pale it made her red hair seem even redder.  Her eyes were closed, and the blankets pulled up around her shoulders, and she gave no indication of hearing them come in.  Molly walked over to the bed and shook her gently.  "Draco is here to sit with you," she whispered, and kissed her forehead.  "Don't kill each other."

Ginny nodded, too tired to argue with her, "Don't forget the list of things I need for school," she mumbled and rolled over again closing her eyes.  

Molly nodded, gave Draco's shoulder a pat, and said softly, "thank you for coming" before disappearing from the room.

Draco looked over at the bed and groaned inwardly.  It was going to be a very long afternoon.  He walked over to her dresser and picked up a photo of all the Weasleys, sitting out around the lake in the back.  He ran his fingers over the glass quickly and frowned, putting it down, half wishing that his family were more like hers.  He moved to the next picture, which was of Ron, Hermione, Harry, and herself, all smiling for the camera at what looked to be a quidditch match.  He frowned and put it down, and looked towards the next one, which was a photo of Ginny taken at the ball a few days earlier.  Since she didn't have a frame for it, it was leaning against a jewelry box.  Draco looked at it for a minute before shaking his head and sitting it back down.  He was about to sit down when he heard Ginny call his name softly, "Yeah?" He asked and walked over to her. 

"What are you doing here?" She questioned, her voice sleepy.

"What does it look like?"  he responded, "I got roped into being a nurse." He sat down on the chair next to her bed and stuck his legs out in front of him, crossing them at the ankles.

"Oh," She said and turned to look at him, her eyes heavy.  "Thanks."

He smirked.  "Don't thank me; thank my dad.  If he hadn't made me come, then I wouldn't be here.  This isn't my idea of a fun afternoon."

Ginny sighed and pulled the covers up more, even though they were falling off the bed.  Draco got up and fixed them for her, pulling them back up onto the bed.  "There you go."

She nodded, closing her eyes again.  Draco looked over at her clock, and to his dismay saw that he'd only been there for five minutes.  He slumped in his chair and closed his eyes, his head leaning on the back of the chair.

About an hour later, Ginny woke up and rubbed her eyes looking over at Draco.  He was leaning back, his head resting along the back of the chair, his hair falling in front of his eyes.  She watched him for a while, debating whether or not to wake him up and then finally decided that she rather liked the peace and quiet.  

Draco, sensing that someone was watching him, opened his eyes sleepily, "Feeling any better?" he asked, still slightly groggy, and he turned his head gently to work out the kink in his neck.

Ginny nodded, "Yeah, I am." She watched him for a minute.

"What's wrong?" He smirked as he noticed her watching. 

"Nothing," she replied, shaking her head.  "Just staring into space, thinking about how nice it was when you were asleep-nice and quiet."

Draco smirked.  "The medicine must be working, and you must be feeling better…by the way, I think it's time you take more."

She frowned and shook her head, "No, it's okay, I'm fine."

He rolled his eyes.  "Just take it."  He took out two pills and passed them over to her.  "It's my job to make sure you take them- besides, maybe it'll put you back to sleep, and I won't have to sit here and watch you."

Ginny frowned, grabbed the pills from his hands and quickly swallowed them, gulping down some water from a glass beside the bed.  She pushed the covers back and stood up, stretching slightly. 

"Where are you going?" He asked in a disinterested tone. 

"Downstairs, to get something to eat," Ginny replied.  "You can come, or you can stay up here by yourself…I'd personally like the last suggestion better."  She headed out of the room, not waiting for his answer.

Sighing, Draco stood up and followed her downstairs.  "Your mother left sandwiches or something," he said as he followed her into the kitchen. 

She nodded and motioned to two plates.  "Right here."  She handed him one and sat down at the table, taking a bite.  It was simply peanut butter and jelly, one of her favorites.  She looked up to see Draco eying the sandwich warily.  "What's wrong?"

He looked down at it in disgust.  "Nothing I suppose; if you actually like peanut butter and jelly, but I assume you all can't afford anything else."

Ginny frowned.  "You don't have to eat it, you know.  Just leave it there; Mum will clean it up later."

He frowned and sat down, taking a hesitant bite, and paused before continuing to eat it.  "See? It's not so bad," Ginny told him.  

Draco rolled his eyes.  "For peanut butter and jelly it's not I suppose."  He looked around the kitchen, "So what do you do for fun around here?"

"Whatever I feel like doing," she said, "there's a pond out back, although right now I just feel like going in and laying down on the couch."  She paused, "We could play cards if you want.  Dad has a Muggle deck that Hermione gave him; she even taught me some of the games, I can teach you if you want." 

"A Muggle game?" He raised his eyebrow.  "What's wrong with the wizard card games?"

"Nothing, it's just something a little different that's all," she replied and finished her sandwich, putting her plate in the sink, where the sponges immediately started to wash it.  Draco did the same with his and stood up.  Ginny left the kitchen and walked into the living room, where she pulled the cards out of a drawer and pulled a table up next to the couch so they could play, then she sat down and pulled out the cards.  "The first game I'll teach you is Rummy," she told Draco as he sat down next to her, a bored look on her face.

Draco nodded and leaned back against the worn but fairly comfortable couch.  He half listened to the rules as he looked around again, comparing it to his own house.  Where everything at Malfoy Manor was neat, in its place, and looked like it'd never been touched or used, the bookshelves and desks in the living room were cluttered with knickknacks and odds and ends.  Everything looked like it had been used, or "well loved", as he'd once heard Mrs. Weasley call it, and he was surprised to find the atmosphere more settling and less uncomfortable than his own house.  He interrupted her to ask, "Don't you ever clean in here?" He frowned.

Ginny looked up startled, pausing her recitation of the rules of Rummy, and looked around, "of course.  I'm sorry it isn't as clean or as cold as your Manor is," she frowned, "but I like it.  Not everyone has tons of house elves to just do their bidding.  Some people actually have to _work_."

He smirked.  "You would if you had any social standing."

Ginny scoffed, "We have social standing.  Everyone loves my father and mother…they're well respected!  At least they fight for the right side- with Dumbledore, against Tom Riddle, so that other people won't have to go through what we're going through right now! I'd rather have less money than be the son of a known death eater who would probably sell his son just to get back into a position of power!" She instantly regretted speaking up like that when she saw Draco's eyes grow hard and icy.

"What my father does is none of your business," he said, his tone icy.

"It is if we're going to get married!"

"Even then, what my father does is _none_ of your business, and neither is what I do," he snapped.  "Even when we're married, you stay out of my business, and I'll stay out of yours."

Ginny frowned, "That will be easy," she said sarcastically, "particularly when what I do affects you and what you do affects me."  She frowned and said, "And hopefully you won't choose the dark side like your dad did and ruin both of our lives!"

"Maybe I've already chosen, maybe I haven't," he replied with a frown.  "I don't have to discuss this with you; we're not married yet." 

Ginny rolled her eyes, "Thank goodness."  She leaned back against the couch, her head pounding.  

Draco picked up the cards and leafed through them, not looking up at her.  Ginny sighed and watched him for a minute before saying, "Why do you want to follow your father anyway?  I've seen you do spells and potions-you're a good wizard; you could put that towards something useful."

He looked up, "Maybe I don't want to be useful."

Ginny looked at him, startled, "Everyone wants to be useful…everyone wants to make some kind of difference."

"Maybe not me," he replied, "maybe I just want to be left alone." He looked up at her, surprised that he was actually talking about this with her.

"If you want to be left alone, why do you voice your opinions so much?  Or give people a hard time?  Why not just keep to yourself?"

Draco shrugged, "I just do," he said getting defensive, "I don't have to explain myself to anyone, especially to you."

Ginny looked down at her hands, suddenly pausing, and let a silence hang in the air for a while. "You're right, you don't," she finally said and looked up at him, seeing that Draco was just as surprised at her comment as she was.

He nodded curtly and put the cards down, both having lost interest in playing, and he watched as Ginny leaned back against the couch again, closing her eyes.  "You don't look so good," He frowned as he noticed she was slightly paler than she had been before, except for a slight red flush around the apple of her cheeks.  Instinctively he reached out and gently pushed her hair aside, flattening his palm against her forehead.  Ginny opened her eyes too look at him, slightly shocked, but his hand was warm and felt good, so she didn't bother to ask him to remove it.  Draco pulled his hand back, letting it run down her cheek before letting it fall, "You still have a fever," he said.  "Maybe you should go lay down."

"Maybe I should," she said softly and stood up, stumbling slightly, dizzy.

He reached out to grab onto her elbow.  "Need some help?"

Ginny nodded, "Maybe a little bit…if you don't mind that is," she said quickly.

Draco shook his head and slid his arm around her waist, steadying her, causing Ginny to turn a little redder, although she wasn't sure why.  "You'd make a good nurse," she said as he led her back up to her room.

He laughed slightly "I doubt it, I wouldn't want to be a nurse anyway.  If I get sick, I'm blaming it on you, and you'd have to come and take care of me."

Ginny looked over at him as she sat down on the bed and brought her legs up onto the bed pulling up the covers, "You'd _want_ to be around me?"

"Only so I could order you around and make your life miserable," he smirked.

Ginny rolled her eyes, "I think I see what it's going to be like when we get married."

He sprawled out in the chair next to her bed again, "You better believe it."

Ginny frowned as she closed her eyes, quickly slipping into a deep sleep with help from her medication.  Draco stayed in the chair next to her, and watched her sleep for a while before he reached out brushing the hair out of her eyes, and pulled the covers up more, and then left to go sit downstairs. 

Draco woke a few hours later to the sounds of footsteps in the room, and he opened one eye lazily, shifting in the chair, to see Harry, Ron, and Hermione. 

"Get up," Ron frowned and kicked the bottom of his shoe. "You can go now."

Draco yawned slightly and opened his eyes all the way, "Nice to see you too Weasley."

"How's Ginny?" Hermione asked as she set down a bag of heavy books.  "Mr. Weasley got called into work and Mrs. Weasley went with him to help with something," she explained.  "We came back so we could watch Ginny." She sat down in a chair. 

Harry frowned setting his bags down next to Hermione's, and looked over at Draco.  "How'd it go?" He asked, trying to sound polite.

"She's still alive, if that's what you mean," Draco replied looking up at them, and pushing some hair out of his eyes.  "She's sleeping."

Ron nodded, "Good."  He pulled out his chessboard and started to set it up, so he and Harry could play, "What are you sticking around for?" he asked distractedly.

Draco shrugged.  "I thought I'd stick around and make your life miserable Weasley," he replied with a smirk.

"Just ignore him Ron," Hermione said as she pulled up a chair next to the chessboard so she could watch.

An awkward silence hung in the air for a few minutes, and was only interrupted when there was a _pop_ and Mrs. Weasley appeared in the living room.  "Your father will have to work late," she explained as she set down a few more bags, and then looked up at Draco.  "Hello Draco," she smiled.  "I hope everything went alright."

He nodded.  "It went fine, Ginny is up sleeping."

Mrs. Weasley nodded.  "Thank you." She paused.  "Would you like to stay for dinner?" She ignored the look of anger that was on Ron's face and the look on Harry's face.

Draco shook his head, "No," he replied, not wanting to spend any more time in the Burrow than he had to, "I'm going to be headed home."

"Well if you're sure…" Mrs. Weasley said, although it was hard to hide the elated sound in her voice, "Maybe some other time."

"I don't think so," Draco answered curtly, grabbed some floo powder, and stepped into the fireplace, disappearing a few minutes later.

"What were you thinking?" Ron frowned, "Inviting him to stay?"

Molly sighed, "Ron, Draco isn't my favorite person, everyone knows that…but we might as well get used to having him around.  Now, I'm going to get dinner ready…keep the noise down, Ginny is sleeping."  She left the room and walked into the kitchen, opening the refrigerator and began to take out food to make supper with.


	7. Back at Hogwarts

**Disclaimer which I've forgotten on the other chapters: ((eeep!))  Okay I don't own anything related to Harry Potter. Unfortunately, JK Rowling owns all of that.  I don't own Lissa or Jessica in this chapter either- they are owned by themselves.  I also do not own the really great grammar in any of these chapters, that all belongs to my great beta, Nicole.  But the actual words, and lines, and everything else I do own, so don't steal those.  And don't sue me either, because well…I have no money, and this isn't meant to hurt anyone, and I am not claiming to own anything that's related to JK Rowling, just what I wrote below. hehe.**

**Marisa-** Thank you! I didn't realize there were **so** many of them out there until I put this up and was like "eek…" but I'm glad you think it stands out!  
  


**SamiJo-** thanks for the compliment…I hope you enjoy the next chapter

**Amiana Tayren****-** Good question.  Mr. Malfoy also has high hopes for his son; hoping that he will follow in his footsteps.  In fact, he's already started to push him towards the dark side- and the Death Eaters- by opening up the world of Potions to him, which I'm not sure if you picked up on in one of the earlier chapters.  Because his son is no good to him dead, he obviously would want to keep him alive…I hope that makes sense! However, I probably also keep them alive, because…well I like Ginny, and Draco, and wouldn't want to see them dead.

**Melissa-** Thank you! I didn't even realize that I had put a refrigerator in there until you had pointed it out.  But I'm glad that you liked the story enough to over look my mistake.

**Me Acorn, and Sometimes Banana-** Sorry the first chapter seemed abrupt.  Hopefully the others will be more to your liking.  

**lilazndreamergrl-** thank you! however the part about the brilliant idea I'm not so sure about. I thought it was good until I posted this, and then all of a sudden…found a ton that have the same plot line.  Whether any of those are better I don't know, I didn't read them.  If you want to read them and get back to me, you can! 

**VoiCeZWiThiN-** Thank you! I hope you like this chapter just as much as the last. 

**UnLovedRomantic, SaKuRa LoVa, lucius magical pimp stick, Megh, Kazte, VoiCeZWiThiN, Sabe, PossesedRoguey, and the tons of you I forgot…** - thanks!  And I hope you keep reading!

**Iveth-** I plan to finish. Unless something unexpected comes up…so hopefully it'll be finished! I can't say when exactly.

**Bladefanatic-** yeah, that's the thing about the summer. I kinda **had** to have their parents force them to do some stuff together, because they wouldn't ever really run into each other.  

….now chapter seven!

Chapter Seven 

Ginny stared out the window with a sigh.  It had been a week since she'd been sick, and she'd recovered nicely, and just in time to get ready and enjoy her last few days at home before boarding the train to Hogwarts.  Now she was seated in a compartment by herself, a cage with an owl in it sitting next to her. The owl had been a present from her grandmother, which, Ginny had guessed was to make up for the Wizard promise.  Ginny had considered returning him.  His eyes were a deep chocolate brown, and he was a light gray color, and they were friends instantly.  Which, Ginny figured was good, considering many of her other friends had abandoned her once they'd heard of her engagement to Malfoy.  

Harry and Hermione had left when they'd seen their friends, and they were in an compartment farther up the train, leaving Ginny by herself in her own compartment.  Ginny looked at her owl and sighed, "You still need a name don't you?" She said sticking her finger through the cage to gently rub his feathers.  He moved closer to her finger and gently pushed his beak against the cage.  "You'll get out soon," she promised him, "We're almost at Hogwarts."  She sighed again as she stared out the window again, watching the passing countryside.

"Anything off the cart?" a voice asked, snapping Ginny out of her trance.

She looked up at the older woman who was pushing the cart stacked high of candy and other sweets, "No," she said, shaking her head, remembering what had happened the last time she had eaten too much.  "I'm alright thank you." She smiled and the woman moved on, her voice carrying down the hall as she continued from compartment to compartment.

Reaching down into a small bag that was seated at her feet, Ginny pulled out a book and opened to the first page.  Hermione had lent it to her, saying that it was a wonderful story a Muggle book that looked very long and dull.  It was called Gone With the Wind and was supposed to be a Muggle classic about a girl growing up in the South.  Ginny flipped through the pages idly, only half reading.  After a few pages she put it down frustrated, and threw it aside on the seat, watching it land with a thud.  "What to name you," she said to the owl and leaned back against the seat, thinking.  She looked over at the owl, and smiled, "How about Cito?  What do you think of that? It means 'to put into quick motion' in Latin."

Content on the name, Ginny sighed, shifting in her seat.  The ride seemed so much longer without anyone to talk to.  Her classmates were avoiding her like the plague, and her brother, Harry, and Hermione were too wrapped up in catching up with old friends to notice.  Closing her eyes, she hoped she could get some sleep before the train pulled into Hogwarts, hoping that it would also make the time go by faster.

A few hours later, the train pulled into Hogwart's station, and Hagrid's booming voice could be heard, "First years over here!" he yelled, jolting Ginny from her sleep.  Picking up her bag and Cito, she pushed her way out into the aisle and off the train.  She dropped her bags off with everyone else's, and looked around for Ron.  When she spotted him, which wasn't hard because of his flaming red hair, she ran over to him. "Do you have room in your boat for me?"

Ron nodded "Sure, we're one short anyway."  Ginny smiled gratefully and followed the three of them into a boat, where she sat down and looked up at Hogwarts.  No matter how many times she'd come to Hogwarts it always took her breath away.  The castle stood tall against the night sky, lit up in some places by moonlight, giving off a soft glow.  Ginny shivered as she watched Hogwarts come closer and closer as the boat neared the dock.

"Pretty isn't it?" Hermione asked Ginny, leaning around Harry to get a better look.

Ginny nodded, "This is one place I could never get sick of," she said, wrapping her robes tighter around herself to keep the wind out.  

Harry nodded, "I know what you mean, this is the only place that has ever felt like home…I wonder who our new Defense Against Dark Arts teacher will be," he said.  "I haven't heard anything, have any of you?"

Hermione shook her head, "They haven't put anything in the _Daily Prophet_ about it, but then again, they never do.  Dumbledore might have just chosen someone as well…I just hope this one stays for longer than a year."

"You never know," Ginny said as she stepped off the boat and waited for the rest of them, not wanting to get lost in the crowd.

"Welcome back!" Hagrid called to everyone from where he was standing, and when Ginny caught his eye, he waved and winked before turning to herd the first years inside.

Ginny smiled.  At least someone was happy to have her back, she thought as she turned to see where Ron had gone.  Realizing he was a few feet in front of her, she ran to catch up.  "Thanks for waiting for me," she said to him so only he could hear.

Ron shrugged.  "Sorry, I thought you were right behind me."

"Well I wasn't," she said, a little irritated and not happy about the stares she was getting.  Ron gave her an apologetic grin and turned to answer Harry who had asked him a question about quidditch.  Ginny walked into the Great Hall and smiled.  Every year it looked the same, but it didn't matter, the candles hovering over the tables and the soft glow they gave was comforting and managed to soothe her agitated mood for the moment.  She slipped into a seat between Hermione and Harry.

"Doesn't look like there's anyone new at the teacher's table," Hermione commented as she looked up at the table where Dumbledore and a few other teachers were already seated.

"Some of them will probably come in late; they always do," Harry pointed out.   "They help out with first years, at least McGonagall does, and some of the others help with the baggage and such." He shrugged.  "Do we know any of the first years?"

Ron shook his head, "Not this year, I don't think.  At least you don't know any of them.  Although I think Dean's brother might be being sorted this year, but I don't remember…" he frowned.

"That was last year Ron," Hermione reminded him, rolling her eyes, "Really, you should try and keep that straight.  This year Seamus's brother is getting sorted."

Ginny let her mind wander, only half listening.  "Well there are too many people getting sorted! I can't remember them all," Ron frowned.

"Maybe we should keep a list," Harry said, attempting a joke, trying to dispel any fights before they started.

Ron nodded, "I wonder how long the sorting ceremony will take; I'm hungry!"

"You ate on the train Ron," Ginny pointed out, knowing that her mother had packed him a sandwich, and she was sure he and Harry had bought some candy. 

"I'm a growing boy," he pointed out.  "I need more food than normal human beings."

"That's not because you're a boy, that's because you're a bottomless pit!" Ginny laughed and watched as more people filed into the hall.  "I feel like everyone is looking at me," she said in a soft voice so only the four of them could hear.

"Probably because they are," Ron frowned, "it's not everyday a Gryffindor and a Slytherin get engaged."

Hermione sighed, "Ron!" She turned to Ginny.  "I'm sure it's nothing, just ignore them, they don't know the situation or anything behind it…and it's none of their business, remember that." Hermione told her firmly.

Harry nodded.  "And if anyone gives you any trouble, I'm sure Fred and George have something we could give them." He grinned.

Ginny managed to smile, "Thanks guys-" she was about to say something else when Dumbledore stood and tapped his glass.

"Welcome back to Hogwarts!" He said, and his words were met with a loud cheer, which he quickly quieted with a slight wave of his hand.  "We'd especially like to welcome those of you who are new to Hogwarts." He smiled at the first years that had filled in and were standing close to the table.  "Before we begin the meal, we need to sort the first years and hear some general announcements." He nodded to Professor McGonagall and sat down.

"Thank you," McGonagall said and nodded to him before turning to the first years.  "When I call your name please come forward and sit down.  I will then place the sorting hat on your head.  Once you have been sorted please join your houses at the appropriate table."

Ginny, having heard the speech many times before, tuned McGonagall out and found herself staring around the room.  To her surprise, she found her eyes wandering over to the Slytherin table, where Malfoy was sitting.  He was seated in between Crabbe and Goyle, as always.  His usual smirk was on his face, and his hair was hanging in his eyes slightly.  Pansy was saying something to him that he obviously found amusing, because the smirk deepened.  When he shifted his gaze to look around the room and caught her staring, he nodded to her slightly before turning back to Pansy, who was obviously trying to get his attention.  Ginny quickly looked away, embarrassed at the fact that she'd been caught looking.  "What letter are we on?" She whispered to Hermione.

"J," Hermione answered, "We're almost done…there aren't that many first years this year it looks like.  Either that or it's just going faster than I remember."  Ginny merely nodded in response.

Fifteen minutes later, all the first years were sorted, and Dumbledore stood up.  "I trust you all will welcome those that are new in your house.  Now for some announcements: as always, Mr. Filch has asked that there be no running, magic, or loud noises in the hallways.  First years, remember the Forbidden Forest it out of bounds.  Hagrid, our groundskeeper, has asked that you please stay out of all the gardens surrounding the castle, as some of the plants that are growing there for medical purposes are not the most pleasant." He paused, letting them absorb the information.  "Now, let us eat."  The food appeared on the tables.

"Finally," Ron said and grabbed some of the food, piling it high on his plate.

Ginny eyed his plate and shook her head, "You worry me sometimes Ron. How someone can eat that much I have no idea."

"I would eat that much if I could," a voice spoke up behind Ginny, and she turned to see Sir Nicholas, affectionately called 'Nearly Headless Nick' by the students for his half -severed head. 

"Hello Sir Nicholas," she said politely.

"Hello Ginny, Ron, Harry, Hermione," he said and smiled at each of them in turn.

"Have you made it into the headless hunt yet?" Harry asked, knowing full well that the answer would be no, but it had become a tradition to ask the question every year.

"Not yet," the ghost replied sadly.  "My membership keeps being denied!"

"I'm sure you'll make it in someday," Hermione assured him, "They don't know what they're missing."

"Quite right, Miss Granger," he said with a smile, and then swept off to see some of the new first years.

"I almost feel sorry for him," Ron said as he put a forkful of potatoes in his mouth and swallowed.

"Well, I'd hate to be headless," Ginny shivered at the thought.  "I'd rather be _nearly_ headless like Nick, despite the headless hunt."

Harry nodded.  "I agree with Ginny." He looked to the end of the long table where the ghost had his head off to the side, and a bunch of first years were making faces.  "Does he _always_ have to do that at dinner?" Harry frowned.  "It makes everyone lose their appetite." He put down his fork.

"It doesn't bother me," Ron commented as he continued to eat.  

Ginny started to eat, and looked up at the teacher's table.  "Look!" she said as a new teacher came in and sat down to the left of McGonagall.  "Do you think that's the new Defense Against Dark Arts teacher?"

Ron looked up at the stage, "Probably," he said. "Snape is giving him a nasty look…and everyone knows Snape wants that position."

"Snape gives everyone nasty looks," Hermione pointed out.  "But since he's the only teacher up there we don't know, I'm assuming he is."

Harry nodded.  "At least he doesn't _look_ bad."

"Looks can be deceiving," Ron pointed out.  "Quirrell didn't look bad and he had You-Know-Who on the back of his head!"

Everyone around him nodded in agreement, and the topic switched to quidditch.  Ginny kept her gaze on the new teacher.  He looked average height, which really meant nothing since he was seated.  His eyes were what looked to be a light blue, and his hair was brown, and perfectly combed; the robes he wore were deep blue, trimmed in black.  He was deep in conversation with Professor McGonagall, and Ginny noticed Professor Trawnley eying Professor McGonagall jealously.  "I think someone likes the new professor," Ginny spoke up, interrupting the quidditch conversation.

Hermione looked up at the stage, "It's always possible, I suppose," she shrugged, "although I'm sure there are rules against that sort of thing."

"What sort of thing?" Ron asked looking up from his plate of food, and his quidditch conversation with Harry.

"Teachers dating teachers," Ginny responded.

Harry nodded "I'm sure there is…" He looked up at the teacher's table, and they sat in silence for a minute before the quidditch conversation started again.

When everyone had finished eating and it started getting late, Ginny got up and started to head for the bunkroom, not bothering to wait for her brother and his friends, knowing they wanted time to catch up with friends of their own.  The walk back up to the Gryffindor tower was a familiar one, and she didn't even have to think about it.  Her feet took her there automatically and left her to her own thoughts.  Dinner had gone well enough, but there had definitely been some looks in her direction as news of her and Draco had spread.  Ginny had hoped to keep it to herself, but of course that was not possible in a place like Hogwarts where secrets spread like fire, and no one had any secrets to themselves.  There had been no questions though, probably with the excitement of the sorting, and the fact that she had been sitting with Ron, Harry and Hermione.  Stopping in front of the fat lady, she mumbled the password and walked inside to the common room.  A fire was in the fireplace giving the room a soft glow.  Nothing else had changed; the chairs were still in the same places, the pictures in the same spots, the only difference at the moment was the absence of people.  Ginny climbed the stairs to her room, where her trunks had already been placed.

The room was simple and plain; three four-poster beds were in the center of the room, with a desk and a nightstand next to each, and a window between the beds.  The trunks were already put at the end of the beds, and it wasn't hard to find which bed was hers, her trunk was more beat up than the other two, although it didn't bother Ginny.  Cito's cage was on her nightstand, and she walked over to it, opening the door, letting him out.  He gave a small hoot and flew over to the window, pecking it gently.  "There you go," she said, opening it for him, and watched him fly out, stretching his wings.

After watching Cito for a few minutes, she turned to her trunk and opened it, starting to unpack her clothes and things.  A few pictures of herself and her family and friends taken from her dresser were put on her nightstand and desk, along with her schoolbooks, and her cauldron under the desk.  She started to put her clothes into her dresser, which was against the wall opposite the bed.

Ginny continued to put away her things, only looking up when she heard a loud giggle in the doorway.  She looked up to see Lissa O'Connell and Jessica Bryant standing in the doorway. Ginny sighed.  Why did she have to be roomed with the Gryffindor gossip twins?  Just what she needed this year, two roommates who were known for sticking their noses into other people's business.

The two girls gave Ginny a smile, "Hello," Lissa said as she sat down on her bed, an issue of _Witch Weekly_ in her hand, open to a double truck about how to catch a boy's attention.  "Good to see you again."  The two girls had known each other since first year, when they had been roommates, and while they had never been close friends, they were able to tolerate each other.  Both girls looked somewhat alike from the back, on the short side, with bright red hair and emerald eyes, and at first glance were often mistaken for one another.

Although their looks were very similar, both girls were very different.  Ginny was usually more quite and reserved, although her temper had a tendency to flair at exactly the wrong moments.  Being the more serious student of the two, Ginny's grades were considerably better, as was her attendance record.  Lissa who was more into boys and fashion was easily the more outgoing one, and looked at school as nothing more than a chance to meet new people and attract attention from the boys.  Therefore, she did not have a problem occasionally skipping a class or forgetting an assignment.

"Hello," Jessica echoed, as she sat down on her bunk, "I guess we're roommates again this year."  She pushed a strand of her long brown hair out of her face and leaned back against the pillows on her bunk with a yawn.  Like Lissa, Jessica's favorite subjects were fashion and boys.  School did not come easily to her, with the exception of potions, and she did not see the importance in it.

Ginny nodded her hellos and opened the window for Cito who was pecking at it with his beak.  When he was inside she closed the window again and gently stroked the top of his head. 

"Is it true?" Lissa suddenly blurted out, and Jessica shot her a look. Lissa frowned and mouthed, "Sorry!" before turning to hear Ginny's answer.

"Is what true?" Ginny asked with a sigh, hoping to avoid the topic she knew they were bound to bring up sooner or later.

"You know," Jessica grinned, forgetting that she had recently just scolded Lissa for prying into Ginny's business, "You marrying Malfoy!"

"Yeah, that's true," Ginny said, "But I really don't want to talk about it, can we-"

"It's really true??" Jessica exclaimed, her blue eyes going wide.  "You are so lucky!"

Ginny looked at her skeptically, "How am I lucky?"

"Well because he's so cute," Lissa explained with a grin, "There are so many girls who would die to go out with him, even though he is a Slytherin." She shrugged, "Everyone has their faults."

"Well you can have him," Ginny told her with a wave of her hand.  "He's not that great.  He's not even that cute. He's a stuck up, arrogant, egotistical pain in the neck."  Ginny frowned as she thought about him, "and he's infuriating, you can't talk to him without getting into an argument over some comment he's made."

Lissa shrugged, "Like I said, everyone has their faults.  Do you think you could introduce us sometime?"

"I'd really rather not, I want to stay as far away from him as possible," Ginny told her, "Sorry."

Jessica frowned, "But you have to talk to him sometime, you are going to get married."

"I really don't want to talk about this," Ginny snapped, getting agitated and turned her attention to putting Cito in his cage.  

"Sorry," Lissa frowned.  "You don't have to snap at us, we were just curious."  She turned her attention back to the magazine, which was lying in front of her, still open to the same page. 

Ginny sighed, "I'm sorry you guys I just…don't want to talk about it."

Jessica nodded and changed the topic.  "So how's your brother, Ginny?"

"Which one?" She asked as she pushed the covers down on her bed and disappeared into the bathroom, leaving the door open a crack so she could still hear them.

"Ron," Lissa answered for her with a grin, looking over at her friend.  It was no secret that for the past two years she had had a crush on him.

Ginny shrugged as she set out her toothbrush, not caring that they couldn't see her, "He's fine I guess.  Why?"

"No reason," Jessica said with a shrug, as she rifled around in her trunk for her pajamas.

"I think someone has a crush," Lissa grinned as she flipped the magazine closed.  "He isn't that bad looking you know…cute in a little boy kind of way…"

Ginny came out and rolled her eyes, "I don't think Ron is looking for a girlfriend right now," she answered, and pulled the covers up laying her head down and yawning.  The long night had left her wanting a good night's sleep, although it didn't seem like she would be getting one anytime soon.  She tried to block out the constant chatter from Lissa and Jessica, so she could to sleep, and eventually the familiar sounds of Hogwarts lulled her to sleep. 


	8. Potions Help

Chapter Eight 

Two months later Ginny sighed, dumped her books on her bed, and stared out the window for a minute watching the Gryffindor quidditch practice far off in the distance.  She had promised both her brother and Harry she would come and watch today, and while ordinarily she didn't break promises, this would be one she would have to.  After a long morning of potions class, in which she managed not only to mess up her potion three separate times, in three separate ways, Collin Creevey had followed her around constantly asking her questions and reminding her of what she was doing wrong.  After irritatingly telling him to get lost and seeing the hurt look on his face, Ginny had forced herself to apologize, reminding herself that Harry and Ron had gone through the same thing with Hermione and now they were best friends.

As if that combined with a headache had not been enough, Snape had announced in front of the class that there would never be any hope for her future in potions, or for her future in potions for that matter, and that a tutor would have to be set up for her immediately.  And if she would stay after class, maybe they could find someone smart enough to teach a dimwit like herself.  While she had stood there fuming, her nails digging into the palm of her hands (which would no doubt leave marks later), she had been given apologetic looks across the classroom by fellow Gryffindors, and mocking looks from the Slytherins who they shared class with.

With a sigh she pulled the curtains closed and blocked the light from falling across the bed and blocked out the sight of quidditch practice.  In a short time she would have to report back to the dungeons to see who Professor Snape had picked out for her tutor, and who she would have to spend the rest of the day holed up in the dungeons with.  She had hoped it would be Hermione, or Harry even (although the chances of that were slim, potions had never been his strong suit), but she doubted it.  Ignoring a nagging voice in the back of her head who told her that the tutor would turn out to be a stuck up Slytherin brat, she sat down on the edge of her bed, and laid down across it, her red hair falling over the edge of it, her eyes closed.

She was startled from her thoughts when she heard, "Oh Ginny I am so _sorry_," Lissa gushed, as she came into the room putting her books down on her bed and walking over to the girl who's eyes by now had opened reluctantly.  "You know if we could we would go down and stay with you…but the thought of more potions makes me feel like throwing up."

Ginny sighed, "That's alright." She smiled, glad for once that they wouldn't be following her down to the dungeons again, even though the thought of having at least one friend there was comforting, then maybe she wouldn't have to endure the torture by herself.  "I'm sure I'll manage." She said this as much to convince herself as to convince the girl who was now sitting in front of her.

Jessica smiled as she sat down on the bed as well "Well try and think of something different…are you planning on going to the Yule Ball?" she asked.

"I don't know, I hadn't really thought about it," Ginny admitted, "Probably not…If I do it'll only be for a short period of time…I'm not big on dances." She scrunched up her nose and made a face, "I went to the ministry ball, and that was enough for me."

"You don't think your brother would go do you?" Jessica asked as she looked over at Ginny, biting her lip slightly.

Ginny sighed.  While she had learned to get along with the two girls more easily over the last two months, there were still topics that they talked about that she had no interest in, namely, hair, makeup, and boys; and one boy in particular, her brother, Ron.  "I don't know…why don't you ask him?" She said, and it came a little more harshly than she meant for it to.  "Sorry," she mumbled when she saw the look on Jessica's face.  "I better get down to the dungeons."  Picking up her books again she hurried out of the room before she could get asked any more questions. 

The dungeons were the same as she had left them only a few hours earlier, dark, gloomy, and musty.  The only difference was the lack of noise and the bubbling cauldrons on each of the desks.  The silence in the room sent a shiver up Ginny's spine and she took a seat at her regular desk to wait, deciding that being early was much better than being late, at least in this instance.

As the minutes dragged on, Ginny shifted in her chair and tapped her quill against her textbook, which was sitting in front of her next to a few rolls of parchment.  The minutes seemed to drag on as she waited, and glancing up at the clock she realized her tutor was now officially fifteen minutes late.  Deciding to give him or her five more minutes, she began to doodle in the margins of her parchment.  She was right in the middle of drawing a border around the edge of the paper when the door to the classroom opened and shut, causing her to jump slightly.  Without looking up, she said stiffly, "You're fifteen minutes late." 

"You were fifteen minutes early," a familiar voice replied.  Ginny looked up to see Draco peering over her shoulder at the piece of parchment that was laying in front of her, "No wonder you're failing potions," he said dryly, and then looked down at the pictures she was idly drawing around the edges of the parchment that resembled different plants and flowers.  "I think you've confused herbology and potions." He picked up the parchment and crumpled it up.

Ginny glared at him and snatched the parchment back, and flattened it out on the table in front of her.  "What are you doing here Malfoy?" She asked looking down at her paper, trying not to be hurt by his comment.

"Teaching you potions of course," he said.  "I'm going to try at least…we'll see what comes of it."

"And what makes you an expert on potions?" Ginny asked irritated, her awful day had just taken a turn for the worse. 

"Well, the fact that I'm a Slytherin and a Malfoy, and the fact that I spent my whole summer studying this stuff," he informed her as he took her textbook.  "Obviously, your family doesn't put much stock into schooling…then again you wouldn't be able to afford it, would you?  Besides, with the lines of work your parents are in…and your siblings, why would you need it anyway?"

Ginny looked down at the paper.   "You don't know anything about my family Malfoy," she snapped.  "Just because you have no friends but your stupid cauldron doesn't mean that the rest of us don't have lives."

"I wouldn't exactly call what you have a life," he snapped.  "Running around with mudbloods, having a father who can't even support you-" 

Ginny interrupted him before he could continue, and she said coldly, "Aren't we supposed to be working on potions?"

Draco nodded.  "Fine…show me where you're having problems, and let's get this over with."

Ginny opened her textbook to the proper place, and pushed it over to his direction. "It just doesn't make sense…I tried it over and over again, and it's not working!" She frowned.  "I used to be able to get it…"

Draco looked at it for a minute and then got together some ingredients, "All right…let's just start with the first step, you go through it, and I'll stop you when you're doing something wrong."

Looking at the ingredients in front of her, she started to carefully combine them together to make the potion, measuring out the right amount for each one, and double-checked each one, aware of his critical eye.  "There's what you're doing wrong," he said stopping her.  He grabbed her arm to prevent her from moving any further, read her something aloud from the book and explained the order of the ingredients again and the properties of each one, "See?  This one has to go in after this one or it won't work… it'll just end up a mess…even though it says that it goes in first…" He continued to explain.

Ginny looked at the potion and sighed as she had to start all over again, "I hate potions," she sighed, and started to measure out the ingredients again.

"It's alright, you just have to concentrate," Draco said as he watched her.  "It can get dull after a while but it's not as bad as you think…"

"You're right," Ginny said dryly, "it's worse.  Why would you want to spend your whole summer doing this anyway?"

Draco shrugged, "It was my father's idea…Snape was my tutor." He stopped her and corrected her again, and then added, "It wasn't as bad as it could have been."

"Didn't you tell him you'd rather do something else?" She asked stopping the potion for a minute to look at him. 

"My father isn't exactly the kind of person who you say no to," he admitted, watching for a second, before he cleared his throat and said, "Keep working."

Ginny sighed and turned back to her potion, "My father wouldn't ever make me do something like that…not unless I wanted to."

"Well, I guess that's the difference in our fathers," Draco said as he watched her continue with the potion.

Ginny looked over at him surprised to hear a note of sadness in his voice, but just as quickly as it had entered his voice it was gone as he said irritably, "Of course maybe he should have gotten you a tutor…this is the fourth time you've gotten it wrong."  Scowling he emptied the cauldron, "Look at where your father's method got you, in a run down shack with mediocre grades and no future."

Ginny felt her temper flare up, and the blundered potion was forgotten as she whirled around to glare at him.  "At least my father cares about me!" she spat.  "That's what _real_ family is, and judging by your father, he doesn't even know the meaning of the word!"

"At least he can afford to feed me," Draco said icily, "Your father can barely keep food on the table, or any of you in decent clothes."  He looked at her hand- me- down robes in disgust.

"My father might not be the richest man in the world but he's better than a murderous Death Eater any day," Ginny yelled at him, her temper getting the better of her.

Without even thinking, Draco's hand flew up and hit her across the cheek, "You better get used to it," he said coldly, "because starting very soon he'll be your murderous Death Eater father- in- law, and your husband will be just like him."

Tears stung the corners of Ginny's eyes and she resisted the urge not to hit him back.  "Don't you _ever_ hit me again!" She spat, her hand going up to her cheek.  In response to his earlier comment she looked him in the eye and tried not to flinch, "You won't be like him.  Not if I have anything to say about it."  Grabbing her books she stood up and hurried out of the room.

"Bloody hell," Draco grumbled as he watched her run from the room, and he stood up and proceeded to put the cauldron and ingredients away.

"How did it go?" Snape asked after a few minutes of watching Draco put everything away.  "I trust her grades will be better from now on?"

Rolling his eyes, Draco ignored his last comment, "It went fine," he said testily.  "Just fine.  We argued, I lost my temper and slapped her, and she ran from the room…it was _just great_."

Snape raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything as he walked across the room to sit down behind his desk, "I take it the potion did not get completed then?"

Draco gave him a wary look.  "Didn't you just hear anything I said?  And no, it didn't get completed."

"Then you'll have to meet with young Miss Weasley again tomorrow afternoon," Snape replied as he shifted a few papers around on his desk, and picked up a quill to start grading.  "You may go."

Knowing full well that an argument with Snape would do no good, Draco crossed the room to the door and paused, "You know what the worst part was?" He said suddenly.

"What was that Mr. Malfoy?  Do you care to enlighten me?" Snape replied, not looking up from his papers, giving off an air of indifference, as if the answer did not interest him in the slightest.

"For a few minutes I was the spitting image of my father," Draco said as he leaned back against the doorframe watching the professor who was still busy grading.

"Oh really?" The professor inquired with the same air of indifference.

Sensing that this was not the time for a conversation with the professor, Draco nodded, and walked out of the room, shutting the door to the room carefully behind him.  Professor Snape looked up as the door closed, and then shook his head slightly before going back to grading papers.

~*~

"What happened to you?" Lissa asked as Ginny burst through the portrait hole, her cheek red, and trying not to cry.  "Did something happen with Professor Snape…?"

Ginny shrugged off the questions and sat down at one of the tables, and buried her head in her hands taking a deep breath.  "Just another potions session," she grumbled.

"You should have told me you needed help I could have helped you," Hermione said looking up from her charms book.  "Was Professor Snape in another one of his bad moods? I had him this afternoon and he was insufferable…"

Ginny shook her head, "No no, I didn't have Snape…he decided to let Malfoy teach me potions this time.  We just got in an argument that's all…it was stupid actually over the same old stuff, his father, my father."  She pushed a strand of hair behind her ear and sighed.  "I wish it was summer again."

Hermoine reached across the table and squeezed her hand gently, "I'm sorry Ginny." She bit her lip "I wish there was something I could do….I can help you with the potions tomorrow after I help Professor McGonagall if you want…"

Shaking her head, Ginny forced herself to smile.  "It's okay, really. I just need to get studying some more that's all.  I can figure it out on my own I know you've been really busy lately.  Besides we have to learn to get along sometime.  It just makes me mad when he insults my father like that…then again I did call his dad a murderous death eater," she mumbled.

"A _what_?" Lissa asked her eyes going wide. 

"That wasn't very nice," Hermione frowned, "Just because he's a jerk doesn't mean…"

"I know I know!" Ginny cut her off, shifting in her chair, "I didn't think about it before I said it okay? I'll apologize." 

Hermione nodded sympathetically, "Well if you need anything, you'll let me know right?"  When she saw Ginny's nod, she turned back to her book picking up her quill again. 

"I almost forgot to tell you Ginny, this came for you," Lissa said handing her an envelope, "I think it's from your mother…I'm surprised the owl that delivered it made it all the way." 

"Thanks," Ginny said taking the letter and looking at it for a minute.  The words that were scrawled on the front, _Miss Virginia Weasley, _were in her mother's handwriting, and Ginny stood up. "I think I'll put my books away and head up to the Astronomy tower to read this…I'll see all of you later."

Lissa nodded, "Sure…Jessica and I were going to go take a walk later around the quidditch pitch if you want to join us."

Ginny shrugged, "We'll see."  She left the room without hearing a goodbye from Hermione; she knew there wouldn't be one, as the girl was too engrossed in reading her book to realize what was going on around her.  

After dropping her books in a pile on her bed, Ginny went up to the Astronomy tower and sat down, turning the letter over in her hands, debating whether or not to open it.  The Astronomy tower had always been one of her favorite places, especially when it was dark outside or the sun was going down because of the big window on the far side that gave a perfect view of the night sky, which had in fact, given the tower it's name.  During the day and very late at night the tower was extremely busy with people coming and going, doing homework or just sitting around, but when timed just right, it would be empty, and a good place to think.  Finally pushing her fingernail under the flap to open it, she pulled out the letter and opened it.

Skimming it she saw the regular introductions consisting of questions and comments like, "How are you?  How is your brother?  You're father and I are fine…we miss you and hope to see you soon.  How are your classes, and I hope you aren't getting into too much trouble…"

The letter went on to explain a conversation she'd had with her older brothers Bill and Charlie, and turning to the next page Ginny found the real reason for the letter.  _"As you know Draco's birthday is this summer, and I started to make arrangements and plans for the wedding (We'll discuss them with you when you come home for break), but we were invited to the Malfoy's…I understand that you love spending Christmas day at home, so we'll spend half the day at our house, and then the second half of the day we'll spend at the Malfoys…" _Ginny didn't even bother to read any further, she put the letter down in disgust.

She was so wrapped up in her own thoughts about how angry she was at her mother that she didn't even hear the sound of footsteps on the stairs until she looked up and found that Draco was standing next to her.  Looking down she quickly picked up her letter, shoved it back into the envelope, and started to leave.

"You got one, too?" he asked, holding up an unopened letter that had the Malfoy seal on it.  

Ginny nodded.  "Yes…I did." She looked down at her letter for a minute and carefully closed the envelope.  "Look Draco…I'm…I'm sorry about blowing up at you downstairs in the dungeons…I shouldn't have said that about your father."

A look of surprise flashed across Draco's eyes before he shrugged and sat down, "It's probably true but it gives you no right to say it." He slid his finger under the seal and pried the envelope open.

Ginny nodded as an awkward silence hung in the air, "You could apologize to me too you know," she finally said. "It wasn't just me."

Draco looked up from his letter and raised an eyebrow.  "Apologize? What for?"

"For slapping me!" Ginny said, frustrated.  "That wasn't exactly nice of you either."

"Malfoys don't apologize," he replied before turning back to his letter.  "Especially not to the likes of the Weasleys."

Ginny clenched the letter in her hand, "I know you weren't exactly raised to have manners but that's still no-"

Draco brought his hand up to silence her, "I came up here to be alone.  Not argue.  I didn't even know you were up here until I got here okay? So why don't you just sit down and read your letter and let me read mine?"

Watching him for a minute, Ginny sat back down where she had been and released the letter that she had been clenching surprised to see that the letter was now all crumpled up.  She glanced over at Draco who was in the middle of his letter and paying no attention to her.  Finally when the silence had become stifling enough, Ginny blurted out, "Did you hear about Christmas?"

"If you would let me read, maybe I would," Draco replied as he leaned back against the stonewall, the hand holding the letter resting on his knee.  "But I suppose I'm not going to get any peace and quiet up here anyway so you might as well just tell me." He tossed the letter down to the ground. 

Ginny flushed and said, "All my letter said was that we'd spending half of Christmas at your house, and half at mine… My mother has already started planning the wedding."  She held the letter out to him.  "You can read it if you want…" 

Shaking his head and pushed the letter back towards her, "And why would I want to read anything that your mother had to say? She couldn't possibly have anything interesting to say."

Ginny stuffed the letter in her pocket and stood up.  "Look, I know we both don't like each other, but we're stuck together, at least for the next three years.  Can we at least agree to _try_ and make Christmas pleasant?"

Draco scoffed, "as pleasant as possible, I suppose, considering we'll be forced to spend it together."

Taking a deep breath, Ginny let the comment go by and held out her hand, "Promise me we'll at least try and get along."  She bit her lip as she watched to see his response. 

Draco looked at her, then down at her hand and smirked.  "Maybe we could do a wizard's promise," he suggested sarcastically. 

"Fine, don't take me seriously… I just thought we could try and get along at least one day out of the whole year…but I guess the fact that you're a Malfoy slipped my mind."

Draco rolled his eyes, "Calm down, you're over exaggerating."  He reached out and shook her hand, "I'll be on my best behavior." He smirked, and when he pulled his hand away, he made a show of wiping it off on his robes, "Ugh…Weasley."

Ginny sighed and looked down at her hand, "'Night, Draco." She walked past him and down the steps back to the common room. 

He watched her go then sat back down, leaning against the wall and closed his eyes.  


	9. Christmas

Hey all, here's another chapter. Sorry it took so long- I'm sick again and have been in bed for almost a whole week cutting back on time where I could make the necessary changes to this…I have a couple more chapters written but I don't know when they'll be up or when I'll be able to write more.  Oh and to those who left suggestions about mistletoe and stuff: this was written LONG before I put up the last chapter, so all of those suggestions unfortunately couldn't be put in seeing as I had this written about two weeks before I posted the last chapter. Sorry! And sorry it took so long for me to update… and a note: I don't know if where harry lives he could have gotten a Gameboy, I don't know if they would have worked at the Weasleys, just pretend.  Also about the getting married in a church thing, they celebrate Christmas, to me that makes them some sort of religion, and while many argue no, I'm the author lol, so what I say goes (oo a slight rhyme) so to me they're Catholics who just happy to study which craft, which doesn't make sense because Catholics don't believe in witch craft…but just pretend it makes sense. It's not there to offend anyone, and I'm not getting into the real religious side of things just mentioning a church. So yeah…just deal.

~Firefly

**~Chapter Nine~**

Draco woke up on Christmas morning in his own bed in Malfoy Mansion.  The Christmas holidays had come faster than anticipated, although he was one of the few who wished he could have stayed at Hogwarts and spent the day in the common room away from his parents, who did nothing but fight since he arrived home.

"Master must get up," a house elf squeaked as he pushed the curtains back from the windows letting the sunlight in from the window.  "The Weasleys will be arriving for breakfast in less than an hour. Your father wants you downstairs as soon as possible."

Draco nodded and shooed the house elf away with a wave of his hand.  Rolling out of bed, he pushed the covers back and walked over to the window.  The gardens of Malfoy manor were covered with a blanket of pure white snow, and icicles hung from the branches of trees.  After taking one last look out the window, he walked into the bathroom and started to get ready. Deciding that green would be an appropriate color for today, he put on a pair of black pants and a green silk shirt.  

When he ascended down the stairs, he saw his father and mother arguing in the main foyer and groaned inwardly, knowing this would be a very long day.  "Merry Christmas, Father, Mother," he replied, breaking into the argument.

"Merry Christmas Draco," his mother said with a smile as she pulled away from the argument long enough to give him a quick one-armed hug.

"Go make sure the house elves followed my directions in the dining room, will you, Draco?" Lucius asked, not even bothering to wish his son Merry Christmas.  "Mr. and Mrs. Weasley will be here soon with Ginny…I still cannot believe your mother invited them over for Christmas!" He turned an angry glare towards his wife.

Draco ran his hand through his hair and remembered the promise he had made with Ginny in the tower before break had started.  "Why don't we just try and get along today? It is Christmas after all…" he shrugged.

Lucius gave him an odd look.  "Do you know what you're talking about, Draco?  These are the _Weasleys_."  

Draco nodded with a slight shrug, "Yes I do, Father, but maybe I'm just sick of constantly listening to arguing."

"Your son does have a point," Narcissa pointed out with a slight smile.  "Now why don't we all just enjoy the day?  It might not be so bad after all…"

Lucius sighed, giving in.  "Fine, but when things start going wrong and everyone starts fighting, don't blame me," he said grumpily.

"The Weasleys are here," the house elf said, interrupting the family argument, as he motioned to Arthur, Molly and Ginny, who were standing behind him.

"Merry Christmas," Arthur said with a smile as he shook hands with the three Malfoys.  "It was nice of you to invite us to your home."

"Think nothing of it," Lucius said in a forced tone.  "We were glad to have you over."  He and Narcissa led Molly and Arthur into the dining room talking along the way, their conversation stiff.

Ginny held her hand out to Draco, "Merry Christmas."  She smiled slightly.

"Merry Christmas," he echoed.  "That's a uh…" He looked at the sweater Mrs. Weasley had knitted her in the Gryffindor colors, with a large _G _on the front.  It was a Christmas tradition, each member of the family got one each year.

"Remember we promised to be nice," Ginny warned.  She pulled the sweater down a little, "But it's alright," she lowered her voice slightly, "I know it isn't the nicest; I don't really even like it.  I just wear it because my mother loves it when I do.  I suspect that she knows that, but doesn't care."

Draco nodded, "I see…well it's…certainly different.  I'm just glad I don't get things like that for Christmas."

Ginny laughed and gave him a mischievous grin.  "This year you do."  She held up a wrapped present.  "Sorry it's a little lumpy, it's rather hard to wrap sweaters you know.  Don't worry, I told her you don't wear anything but green, silver, and black."

He eyed the present, but took it, and forced a smile.  "That was, um…"

"Nice of her?" Ginny offered.

Draco nodded and set the package aside.  "I'll open it later." He didn't want to get stuck wearing it around the house.  The sweater that Ginny was wearing looked uncomfortable and extremely heavy.

Frowning slightly, Ginny gave a forced nod.  "Sure.  I knew you wouldn't like it anyway." She brushed past him and walked into the dinning room to take her seat next to her mother.  

Rolling his eyes, he followed her into the dining room and took the seat across from her, next to Arthur.  The house elves were scurrying around the dining room, quickly setting down plates of food and filling up glasses with hot chocolate.

"Thank you," Ginny told a house elf with a smile as he handed her a mug of hot chocolate.

The house elf looked up at her, startled, and said, "Thank you miss," and then scurried out of the room to resume his duties.

"You don't have to say thank you Virginia," Lucius spoke up.  "It's their job."

"Just because it's their job doesn't mean they don't want to be told 'thank you'," Ginny replied as she took a sip of her hot chocolate, and turned her attention to the food that was now on her plate.  The plate was piled high with every kind of breakfast food she could imagine; eggs, bacon, potatoes, and even a bagel and toast off to the side.  Not sure where to start she picked up her fork and start to eat some eggs, only half listening to the few comments about the weather outside that were being made by her parents.

Although there were attempts made by both of their parents to further the conversation, but all attempts fell short.  Draco and Ginny avoiding talking all together, each pretending to be very interested in the food on their plate, or a spot on the wall, anything but what was going on at the table.  

Breakfast continued in silence, the usual polite chatter taking place; talk of the weather, school, daily news, and the Ministry occasionally.  When everyone had finished eating, the house elves came to clean the table away, and Lucius said, "We would love to join you at the Burrow, but I do have some work I have to get done.  I got an owl this morning about some urgent business that must be completed as soon as possible.  Perhaps just Draco could join you this afternoon?"  At this suggestion Draco's attention was captured immediately and a look of horror crossed his features and he shook his head adamantly.  

Narcissa gave him a look as Arthur and Molly shifted in their seats.  "Why, of course, he's welcome to come if he still wants to," Molly told him as she stood up.

Lucius looked over at Draco.  "It's up to you, son."

Ginny watched him, curious as to what he would say.  "If you choose to stay that's fine," she said pushing her plate away as she stood up.  "I'll drop your gift by later on."

Looking between his father and Ginny, Draco suddenly felt trapped.  "I suppose I could stop by the Weasley's for just a little while Father…I did promise after all."  He looked over at Ginny.  "And a Malfoy never turns down a present."

Lucius nodded stiffly, "We will see you later then." He did not even try to mask the anger that resonated in is voice at his son's decision.  "Just don't be out too long, your mother would not want to stay home alone for too long."

"Well then," Molly said with a smile as she pulled her coat on, "let's go, shall we?"

Arthur took his wife's hand after putting on his own coat, and nodded.  "Thank you for breakfast."

Molly echoed his thank you, and then said, "Why don't you wait for Draco to get his coat Ginny?  We'll meet you back home."

"Sure," Ginny replied as she watched her parents apparate back to the Burrow, and when she turned back to see where Draco was, he'd already disappeared up the stairs.  She shifted under Lucius's disapproving gaze.  "Thank you for breakfast," she finally said.

He nodded curtly, and looked up when Draco came into the room, floo powder in his hand.  "Ready to go, Ginny?"

Ginny nodded as she followed him out of the room to the fireplace in the study.  Before he could step into the fireplace, she stopped him.  "Why are you coming?" She asked him.  "Your father obviously doesn't want you to come, you told me you didn't want to come…"

Draco shrugged.  "Anything is better than being around here tonight.  My father is a time bomb waiting to go off.  Besides, it'll be interesting to see how the lower class celebrates."

Ginny grabbed a handful of floo power and frowned, "Remember, we're being nice today." She stepped into the fireplace and called "The Burrow!" and disappeared. 

The sight that met her eyes was comforting.  Unlike the coldness of Malfoy Manor, the Burrow was alive with activity.  A large tree stood in the corner of their living room, decorated with old family ornaments, most homemade.  Lights surrounded the tree, giving off a soft glow.  Their stockings were laying around the room, the contents half hanging out as people would go through them, take something out, then push the stocking to the side.  Wrapping paper, boxes, and new gifts lay around the room.  Wedding books, pamphlets, and brochures were laying out across the desk in the corner, along with notes scribbled by Molly and Narcissa.

"It's a lot different than Malfoy Manor, that's for sure," Draco said as he stepped out of the fireplace behind her and looked around her. 

"Christmastime is one of my favorite times of year," Ginny replied, and then called, "We're back!"

Molly came out of the kitchen, a tray of cookies in her hands.  "I'm glad you decided to come Draco," she said honestly.  "I know that our families don't get along, but Arthur and I talked it over, and if we're going to be related, we might as well learn to tolerate each other…" She was about to continue her speech, even though she could tell by the look on Draco's face that he wasn't paying attention, when a quaffle came through a window in the living room.  "Fred and George Weasley!" She screamed as the glass shattered and then put its self together again.  Shaking her head, Mrs. Weasley set down the tray of cookies and picked up the quaffle that had fallen to the floor.  "Excuse me for a minute." 

Ginny laughed as her mother stalked out to the backyard holding the quaffle in her hands.  "They're in trouble now…She told them not to play so close to the house." She set her jacket on a chair and picked up a cookie and bit into it.  "Something wrong with you?" Ginny asked after a few moments of silence.  "You're usually…not this quiet.  Can't you find something to insult?"

Draco smirked as he sat down, "I thought I was supposed to be nice today."

Ginny nodded, "Right…I'm surprised you remembered."  The two sat in silence for a few minutes before Ginny asked, "I know this might not be any of my business but… why were you so anxious to get away from your father?  Especially since the alternative was to come here?" She looked up at him.

Droco, who had been eating a cookie, paused, his shoulders tensing.  "You're right, it's none of your business."

"Right.  I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked."  She looked down at the cookie in her hand, not sure what to say anymore.

Draco looked like he was about to say something when someone apparated into the living room with a faint _pop_.  "Don't I get a hello?" a deep voice asked, causing Ginny to jump and turn.  

"Charlie!" She smiled and ran over, giving him a big hug.  "I didn't know you were coming today…I thought you had something you had to do with the dragons or something."

"And miss Christmas at this zoo house?" He smiled when he pulled back and ruffled her hair, "I wouldn't miss it for the world."  He set some presents under the tree and asked, "Where is everyone?"

"Well….Ron and the twins are outside playing quidditch…I think they're in trouble- they threw another quaffle through the window," she laughed slightly, "and I haven't seen Bill or Percy today.  Dad is upstairs doing something, Harry gave him something called Gameboy for Christmas and we haven't been able to pull him away.  I'm not sure if he's even gotten it to work yet or not…last I heard he couldn't get it to turn on."  Ginny stepped back slightly, "And this is Draco Malfoy, he's spending the day with us."

Charlie nodded, and held his hand out to Draco, "Hello, it's nice to meet you," he said politely, despite the things he had heard about the boy from his brothers. Draco shook his hand, and nodded, before sitting down again.  "So you're the one that's marrying Ginny?" Charlie asked frowning slightly.

Ginny sighed, "We're not talking about that today Charlie…why don't you go get your old broom and join Ron and the twins outside?"

Nodding, Charlie kissed her forehead gently before he walked into the kitchen to go out the back door, "We'll talk later, Gin."

Ginny sat back down.  "Sorry about that…having six brothers can be annoying sometimes." She studied the decoration on the tablecloth.  The door in the kitchen flung open, and Ginny shivered as the cool air came in.

"I swear, boys just never listen," Mrs. Weasley said, agitated but with a slight smile on her face.  She looked between the two who were sitting at the table in an awkward silence and cleared her throat.  "Ginny, have you shown Draco any of the wedding plans yet?"

"No, I haven't…do you really think _now_ is the time?" she asked looking up at her mother. 

"Well he has to see sometime," her mother pointed out.  "Why not now?"

"Would you like to see the wedding plans?" Ginny asked Draco, obviously not thrilled at the suggestion.

Draco shrugged indifferently.  "If you want me to see.  It isn't really a big deal to me.  Planning weddings is a girl's thing usually."

Ginny frowned, but let his comment pass without rebuttal.  "We have the plans over here. Hopefully you'll like them."  She sat down in front of the desk and picked up a list of names.  "I don't want _too _many people there, but I put down some of your friends like Crabbe, Goyle, and Pansy...."

"Well, take them off the list," Draco scowled.  "I don't want any of them there."  

"But... they're your friends," Ginny said, confused.  

"Let's just forget about this right now.  Where will the wedding be?"  A scowl had replaced the masked look that had been on his face only moments earlier, so Ginny knew better than to press the matter.

"Alright…." She picked up a quill and crossed the three names off the list.  "If you change your mind just let your mother know, and she can add them back on."  Ginny paused, tension in the air again and she picked up another picture and handed it to him.  "It's a church not far from here…apparently my mum and your mum went and looked at it…I haven't seen it yet though."  She watched his face for his reaction.

Draco wrinkled his nose slightly, "A church?"

"What's wrong with that?" Ginny asked defensively.  "I think it's a good idea to have it in a church, then again, if you had your way we'd probably have it in a dungeon!"

Draco smirked, "I thought we were trying to be nice today." He set down the picture and leafed through a few more pamphlets and brochures.

"I know I know," she grumbled.  "But sometimes it's not as easy as it seems, you can be really infuriating."

"You're not exactly easy to be around either," Draco pointed out as he flipped through a few more pamphlets.  "You have a terrible temper you know."

"It goes with the red hair," Ginny said dryly, repeating a joke that had been in her family for years.

"What does?" Ron asked as he came up behind her, his cheeks red from the cold, almost matching his red hair. 

"My temper," Ginny answered, looking up at him.  "Did you win?"

He shook his head, "Nope, the twins won…as usual.  Maybe if Harry were here I would have had a chance, but Charlie decided he had too much fun watching me lose to actually help me win."  He grimaced as he looked over at the twins who were explaining to Molly about how they had won. 

Ginny laughed, "There's always next year Ron." 

Ron shrugged and sat down on the couch.  "Maybe…I think we should all open Charlie's presents."

"Don't expect anything _too_ good," Charlie said as he sat down on a big oversized chair.  "I can't afford all that much you know…I'm not at a real high paying job."

"We know," Fred said as he grabbed his package out from under the tree, "as long as it's not a sweater," he gave his mother a teasing glace, "we'll be fine."

Ginny moved up to sit next to her brothers, but Draco sat back watching the family as they gathered around the Christmas tree, each grabbing a gift.  Draco was surprised that he found himself wishing his family were more like the Weasleys, or at least acting like they generally cared about each other.  When he realized what he had been thinking, he frowned slightly and scolded himself, turning his attention back to what was going on outside the window. 

"Draco?" Ginny asked from where she was sitting on the floor in front of him. 

"Yes?" he asked lazily turning his attention towards her. 

"I have something for you…but I thought I'd give it to you later, is that alright?"

Draco nodded, "Of course. I have something for you as well."  When she nodded and turned her attention back to watching her family finish opening their presents, he turned his attention back to the window, trying to act like he was not interested in what was going on.

When the rest of the presents had been opened, Molly stood up and started clearing away the wrapping paper.  "We do have to stop by the Furgesons and drop off some presents for their children.  We were hiding them here for them until they came back from their grandmothers.  I could use some help." She looked over at the twins and Ron.  "They're in the upstairs closet."  Grumbling, the twins and Ron stood up and headed upstairs.

"I'll come with you," Charlie spoke up.  "I haven't seen the Furgesons in years."

"Draco and I will stay here with Dad," Ginny spoke up.  "I don't think he'd want to go over to the Furgesons…besides, they might not…" She paused trying to think of a way to say, "get along well" without putting it bluntly, as well as the fact for as long as she could remember whenever she has gone to the Furgesons she had always said something that insulted their grandmother in some way, and always spent the rest of their visit there apologizing profusely. 

As it turned out, she didn't have to.  Molly interrupted with a nod.  "I agree."

Ginny reached behind the tree and picked up a package once the rest of her family had left for the Furgeson's and handed it to Draco.  "I wasn't sure what to get you," she said with a shrug.  "So hopefully you'll like it."

Draco took it, and looked down at it, and then reached into the pocket of his robes and pulled out a flat, rectangular package and handed it to her.  "I guess we'll see won't we?" he asked as he started to unwrap the present.  When the paper was finally pulled off, it revealed a quidditch book with the latest statistics on all teams in the league.

"I wasn't sure if you'd like it," Ginny told him, not sure why she cared in the first place.  "Ron liked it, so I thought maybe…" she shrugged. 

Draco flipped the book, surprised that she had managed to get him the one thing that she had wanted.  Not that he would actually admit that, of course.  "I'm sure it'll be interesting." He replied, and set the book aside.  "Open yours." Draco smirked slightly, "I saw it and instantly thought of you."

Ginny raised an eyebrow, "Then I'm not sure I want to know what it is." She pealed back the wrapping paper hesitantly, and was surprised that inside laid a quill, and an empty journal.  A large _G_ was embroidered on the cover in red, and she looked up at him questioningly.

"To match the sweater," he replied, picked up the quill and handed it to her.  "Go ahead, open it up and write something."

Ginny looked up at him skeptically and then opened the journal and smoothed back the first page, and scrawled the date at the top, and paused, the quill just above the paper, before she wrote _Hello.  My name is Ginny Weasley_.  She dropped the book in horror and jumped back when it responded with a courteous _"Hello Ginny.  How are you today?"_

Draco looked surprised at the look of terror on Ginny's face and frowned.  "It's just a joke Ginny…it's charmed to respond.  It has responses that it knows and it just writes them back at random." He picked up the book off the floor and closed it.

Ginny looked at him, her expression now having gone from one of terror to one of hurt and anger.  "That was cruel Malfoy!" She tried hard to keep her voice down so her father, who was still upstairs fiddling with the Gameboy, would not hear.  "I can't believe you did a thing like that!"

"I thought it would be funny…" Draco started to explain, confused at why she was upset.  "And since you lost the other one, maybe you'd like this one…" He was at a loss for words as he watched Ginny grab her robe and run out the back door.  Sighing, he grabbed his from the chair and ran after her.

Ginny had stopped running and was now curled up under her favorite tree in the backyard, despite the fact that the ground was frozen from the snow, and snow was still falling.  Shivering she rested her head on her knees and started to cry.

Draco looked around the backyard for a few minutes before he spotted someone by a tree.  "Ginny…" he said almost impatiently.  "Come out from there.  It was a joke, if you don't like it, I can return it."

"It was cruel!" Ginny spat as she looked up at him, tears running down her face.  "You knew how upset it made me when you made jokes about it, and then you and get a…a…replica journal just to rub it in!"

Draco sighed and seeing that she wasn't going to just forgive and forget he ducked down under a tree branch and sat beside her.  "We can return it tomorrow.  I thought you would think it was funny."  He handed her his handkerchief. 

"Well obviously you were wrong," Ginny replied softly before taking the handkerchief from him, and used it to wipe her eyes.

"It wasn't supposed to make you cry," he frowned as he watched her, shifting on the hard ground.  "It was supposed to make you laugh."

"Things only make me laugh if they're funny."  Ginny looked up at him, some of her red hair falling her eyes, and she sighed softly.  "This wasn't a good idea. You should have just stayed at home for Christmas, and I should have stayed here for Christmas…"

Shrugging, he pushed her hair behind her ear, "Maybe.  But at least your house is a lot quieter than mine is," he said dryly.

"Is that why you came?  To get away from your parents?" Ginny asked, as she fiddled with the corner of the handkerchief.

"That and to see what life is like on Christmas without house elves," he said with a smirk.  At Ginny's look, he shrugged.  "They've been fighting a lot, that's all.  Nothing new, and we Malfoys have sensitive ears."

"Can't you ever just tell the truth?" She frowned.  "Not all the Malfoys are the same!" She was becoming slightly irritated at his answers, and looked him in the eyes, almost as if she was daring him to give her a straight answer. 

Draco looked back at her, and then said, "No.  We all aren't the same.  My father and I are very different, so that's why I came."  He broke eye contact with her and said, "If you're going to keep questioning me can we at least get up and walk?  I can't feel my butt anymore."

Ginny stood up and wiped the snow off the back of her robes.  "What is he doing that's so awful that you can't stand to be in the same house with him?"  She held the branch of the tree up so she could walk out to the backyard, causing all the snow to fall off the branch and onto Draco's head.

Scowling he brushed the snow off his head and shoulders, and replied, "You wouldn't understand.  Your father is different."

"Oh and I suppose you're going to tell me it's because he's not rich like your father or that he doesn't have the same social standing as your-"

"It's because," Draco interjected, "he lets you do what you want."

Ginny paused and looked down at the ground as they walked, and then said, "But at least your father pays attention to you.  It would be worse if he didn't."

"Sometimes I wish he would just ignore me," Draco said honestly as he walked with her, his eyes fixed on a point in this distance, although on what, Ginny couldn't exactly tell.  "He doesn't understand."

"Doesn't understand what?" Ginny asked gently.

"That I'm not like him," he responded.  "I want to do something with potions, but…I don't want to be a Death Eater."  He turned his gaze over her to her, "Something you should, no doubt, be happy to hear."

She nodded slowly and stopped by the tree they had started from when they made a full circle around the yard.  "It's your decision," she said carefully, not wanting to make him upset, happy with the fact that he was finally talking to her.  Looking up at him, her eyes locked with his and she said, "You shouldn't do anything that you don't want to."

Draco nodded and leaned his back against the tree, and looked back at her.  "Malfoys never do anything they don't want to do." He replied. 

Sighing, Ginny watched him for a minute before replying, "and what do _you_ want to do?"

Draco pushed away from the tree and took a step towards her, "I'm not sure," he said as he watched her intently.

Ginny watched him, slightly confused, "Well…you have some time to think about it…" she said, stumbling over the words, not sure what else to say.

Shrugging, Draco pulled his hand out of the pocket of his robes and reached out to gently tuck some of her hair behind her ear.  The warmth of his hand against her cold cheek made Ginny shiver gently, and she was about to step back when she realized that Draco was leaning in towards her.  Before she knew what was happening, he had pressed his lips against her own, and she found herself kissing him back.  A few seconds later, Draco abruptly pulled back, and backed away from her.  Ginny bit her lip not quite sure what to say.  

They stood there for a few moments staring at each other in silence, each not sure what to say or how to respond to what had just happened.  This was how Charlie found them a few minutes later.  "Ginny…we're home.  Ginny?" he called as he looked out the back door. 

"Out here," Ginny said finally, clearing her throat, finally finding her voice.  "I'll be inside in a minute."

"All right, well don't take too long, the snow is getting heavier and it's getting dark," Charlie warned. 

Ginny looked up at the sky, surprised to find that Charlie was right.   It was starting to snow harder; she just hadn't noticed.  "All right," she called back, and looked back at Draco.  "We should probably go inside."

He nodded, and after a moment said, "Ginny… None of this ever happened." 

Ginny bit her lip.  "Of course…right." She nodded quickly, and hurried towards the house, not bothering to wait up for him.  When she got inside she set her robe down on a nearby chair, and grabbed a cup of hot chocolate from the table, acting as if nothing had happened.  Her father had finally detached himself from the Gameboy, and was sitting in the living room, hearing all about the family's trip to the Furgeson's.  She slipped into a chair unnoticed and listened to the conversation.

Draco came in behind her and waited for a lull in the conversation to announce that he should be departing for Malfoy Manor.  "Thank you for having me," he said to Molly, and then nodded to the rest of them, and nodded to Ginny.  Picking up his book on quidditch that he had gotten from her, he stepped into the fireplace, and after a moment disappeared.  

"He was acting…different tonight," Ron said with a frown as he watched the fireplace for a moment.  "Almost nice." 

Molly smiled, "Well holidays can make people act differently, Ron."  She yawned.  "I think we all better turn in before it gets too late."

Ginny set her cup down in the sink and nodded.  "I think that's a good idea." She looked around at her brothers, who gave her a confused look.

"Are you feeling alright, Gin?" George asked, "you've never asked to go to bed early before."

She smiled weakly.  "Being nice to Malfoy is more exhausting than it looks." 

Ron grinned, "I understand.  Merry Christmas Gin."

Ginny hugged each of them and wished them one last Merry Christmas before she walked up the stairs to her room.  When she'd gotten dressed into her pajamas she climbed into bed and pulled the covers up after taking one last look out the window at the snow covered ground, and fell asleep listening to the sound of her brother's voices downstairs.


	10. Feelings

~**Chapter Ten~**

A week later Ginny was back in the Great Hall, pushing her breakfast around on her plate.  Hermione and Ron were sitting next to her talking, but her attention was wandering over to the Slytherin table, wondering where Draco was.  She hadn't seen him since Christmas, when he'd kissed her, and while she wasn't anxious to see him, she did want to know exactly what had happened that night.

"Ginny…are you even listening to me?"  Ron's irritated voice asked, bringing her out of her thoughts, causing her to turn her attention towards him.

"Yes," Ginny replied nodding, even though she had no idea what he was saying.

"What is wrong with you?  You've been acting weird since Christmas," Ron frowned.  "You haven't been using that journal thing that Draco gave you have you?  Because I told you that probably would lead to trouble just like the other one that you got from-"

"No, I'm not," Ginny replied, her tone becoming irritated.  "I'm just distracted that's all.  Just drop it Ron."  She stared down at her breakfast, not wanting to talk anymore.

Hermione, sensing an argument was about to start, broke in when Ron opened his mouth to say something else.  "Did you take that test in charms yet Ron?  I though I did pretty well…except on question number five, I don't know if I wrote enough.  Did he have a minimum amount you were supposed to write?"

Ginny went back to staring idly at her breakfast as Ron and Hermione continued to discuss their charms test.  After a few minutes, Ginny stood up.  "I think I'm going to go to the library.  I have an essay due in my Defense Against the Dark Arts Class… I'll talk to you guys later."  Not waiting for a response, she hurried out of the Great Hall and into the hallway.  Instead of turning towards the library, she turned and started towards the Astronomy Tower, where she could think.  Her hopes of being alone where cut short however when she heard her name echoing down the hall and she inwardly groaned.  

"Ginny! Wait!" Lissa called running after her, "Where are you going?"

"Nowhere," Ginny lied, "Just walking.  What about you?"

"I was hoping to catch up to you," Lissa said with a smile.  "Jessica and I are going to the library to work on our potions homework and we wanted to know if you wanted to come…hopefully you can help us."  

Ginny shook her head, "Not right now, okay Lissa?  Maybe later…" 

Lissa frowned slightly.  "Is something wrong Ginny?"  She watched her friend with concern, "You know you can talk to me if something is…"

"I know…" Ginny sighed and paused.  Maybe it would be good to have someone to talk to who wasn't her brother or her brother's best friends.  "You would have to promise not to tell anyone though okay?  I mean it…no gossip chain this time okay?"

Lissa nodded, "Sure…I promise.  Want to come up to our room?  Jessica is waiting up there to see if you're coming, and she can help too."

"Sure," Ginny agreed, starting to wonder if this was a mistake.  "But if you two are going to start working on your papers then I can just talk to you later."  Ginny pushed a strand of her red hair behind her ear, ready to turn around and walked down the hall, hoping that Lissa would insist that her paper couldn't wait.

Much to her dismay, Lissa took her by the wrist and pulled her towards the stairs to the Gryffindor common room.  "Of course not- this is better than a paper anyway.  Besides, now you've made me curious.  Don't worry we'll get our paper done in time." 

Inwardly Ginny sighed and regretted saying anything in the first place, but not being unable to take back her words, she let herself be led back up to their room.

When they entered the room, she noticed Jessica was sitting on her bed, papers and books spread out on the bed around her, and when she noticed them a look of relief spread across her face.  "Finally, some help! I'm having a lot of trouble here…" she smiled good-naturedly, but for once she looked stressed.

"Not exactly," Lissa said and closed the books that were lying on the bed and pushed them out of the way.  "Ginny needs to talk, she's having some sort of problem." 

"Now?" Jessica repeated, her usual happy mood replaced with one of stress.  "Can't we get this paper done first?"

Lissa rolled her eyes and gave her friend a look.  "We'll finish it later.  Don't worry it'll be all right.  Besides, when was the last time Ginny came to _us_ with a problem?"

Ginny bit her lip and looked between the two girls, suddenly feeling bad.  It was true that she hadn't ever made an effort to talk to either one of them, while they had always been there to help her.  "I can come back later," she said quickly.  "You know…after you've finished your paper."

"Of course not," Jessica said with a small sigh as she put the books on her nightstand.  "What's the problem?"

Sitting down on her bed somewhat stiffly, Ginny looked down at her hands, and it occurred to her that this was the first time that she'd ever really gone to someone besides Hermione for help with a problem.  Hermione had always been able to guess what was wrong before she'd had to say anything, usually because she'd heard it from Ron, and she wasn't sure how to begin.  Finally, she decided she might as well start at the beginning.  When she looked up, both Lissa and Jessica were watching her; Lissa with a more attentive look, happy for any reason to get out of her paper, and Jessica with a slightly annoyed, stressed look.  "It's about Draco Malfoy," Ginny finally admitted. "But you two have to promise you won't tell anyone- especially my brother."

Jessica looked over at Ginny, interested now.  "We promise.  What about Malfoy?  What happened?"

"Nothing really exciting, it just…it confused me," she said looking down at her hands briefly before looking back up at them.  When they gave her questioning looks, she mumbled, "When he was over at my house for Christmas he kissed me," letting the words run together in one strand.  

Jessica looked over at Lissa.  "What was that?" She asked with a slight frown.  "We can't understand you if you're going to talk to so fast."

Sighing, Ginny repeated it more slowly, enunciating each word.  "Draco kissed me over break."  When she was done talking, she looked down at her hands quickly, flushing almost as bright red as her hair, not wanting to see her friend's reactions.

"What?" Lissa asked her eyes going wide.  After the initial shock wore off, she looked over at Ginny, perplexed. "I don't get it…I thought you two hated each other."

"We do…I mean I _thought_ we did," Ginny said, looking up at Lissa. "I have no idea why he did it.  We were just talking and then the next thing I know…" She let the sentence trail off.  "I tried to find him to talk to him today, but I couldn't find him and then if I did find him I wouldn't know what to say in the first place."

"I mean I know you guys have to get married, but…do you _like_ him?" Jessica asked as she pushed some of her hair behind her ear.

Ginny shook her head. "I…I don't think so. I mean he's Draco."  She wrinkled her nose at the thought.  "It wasn't a long kiss or anything, but I wish I knew why."  Ginny frowned and looked at her friends.  "You don't think he likes me do you?"

"No offense to you," Lissa started slowly, "But I can't picture Malfoy liking _anyone_ really, except maybe himself."  

"True," Ginny nodded and then replied, "I guess it's nothing I should worry about.  It's not like anything has changed between the two of us; we still hate each other.  He's still an egotistical, stuck up-"

"We know," Lissa interjected. "You don't have to convince us."

"You should probably start your paper," Ginny told them.  "I have some notes from mine…" she reached into the drawer on her nightstand and pulled out a few crumpled papers and handed them to Jessica and Lissa.  "You can use them if you like.  I think I'm going to go to the common room, or write a letter to my mom or something.  Thanks for listening."

"It's alright," Jessica said, a look relief flooding her face as she looked down at the notes.  "Thanks for the notes…we'll see you at dinner, right?"  

"Hopefully," Ginny nodded and stood up, surprised when Lissa quickly embraced her in a tight hug.  She stood there for a moment before hugging her back.

"Don't worry about Draco," Lissa responded.  "Besides, it was probably just the fact that it was Christmas or something.  It's not as though it meant anything to either of you.  If it did, then we'd have something to worry about."  The girl laughed and pulled back tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. 

Ginny managed to give her a faint smile, "Right…something to worry about," she echoed, and picked up some parchment and a quill from among her books and put it in her satchel.  "See you two later," she called over her shoulder, as she left the room.  

Leaving Lissa and Jessica to do their homework, she wandered down to the common room.  As soon as she walked in, the first people she saw were Ron and Harry, who were both hunched over a chessboard in the corner.  Catching her eyes when she came down the stairs, Harry smiled slightly when he saw her; however, Ron's back was facing her, rendering him unable to see that side of the common room.  Ron, who was thoroughly engrossed in the game, did not even notice, giving Ginny the chance to slip out the portrait hole unnoticed.

The walk to the Astronomy tower was short, and Ginny managed to arrive at the tower unnoticed, which was exactly the way she wanted it.  When she arrived at the top, she sat down and leaned her back against the wall, sighing softly.  Grateful to be alone, Ginny took out the parchment and quill and dated the very top of the parchment.  She addressed the letter to her mother, but for once was at a loss of what to say.  Her attention wandered back to what Lissa had said about there being a problem if the kiss had meant anything to her. 

While Ginny had to admit that the kiss meaning something to her was a scary thought and slightly repulsive, the idea of this unspoken rule about having feelings towards kissing Draco perplexed her.  She didn't expect that there would ever been anything between her and Draco, but it made her wonder exactly why everyone from different houses had to be so separated.  As she tried to name her friends from other houses, she was surprised that she could only come up with a list consisting of five names.  After a few more minutes of trying to think of names, she pushed the topic out of her mind and looked back down at the letter she had started.  Twirling the quill between her two fingers, she pushed the letter to the side, deciding to finish it later.

While she was putting the letter back in her satchel, her hand hit a leather bound book resting on the top of her charms book.  Ginny pulled it out and ran her hand across the cover, and opened up the first page.  It was the journal she received from Draco for Christmas, or rather, the journal she had gotten when she exchanged his original Christmas present.  The book was made out of soft black leather, with a _G_ stitched into the front with white thread, and slightly resembled the one he had gotten her.  The only difference was this one did not talk back.

She hadn't written it yet, mostly because she was not sure how she should start it.  Having only written in one other journal before, and that one having talked back to her, controlling most of the conversation, she was not sure just how to write.  Smoothing back the first page, she set her quill on the page, letting it make a small dot of ink, before she quickly penned the date in the corner.  Still not sure how to begin, she simply started out how she had started out the last journal, _"My name is Virginia Weasley, but most of my friends call my Ginny.  I'm in the Gryffindor house at Hogwarts…"_  Nothing earth-shattering, or even interesting, but a start at least.  

Once she started writing the rest seemed the come more easily.  She wrote about her brothers, her parents, the Wizard Honor, Christmas…everything.  Finding that it helped to write everything out, she kept writing, page after page.  Her hands were ink- blotted, and starting to hurt, but she kept writing.

Ginny paused to take a break when she thought she heard footsteps on the stone steps that led up to where she was sitting.  When they seemed to fade away, and no one had materialized in the doorway, she started to write again.  "Writing about me?" a voice asked from the doorway, and Ginny dropped the quill in the crease of the journal and instantly shut it as best as she could.

"No, just writing," she responded, not even having to look up to know the voice belonged to Draco Malfoy.

He raised an eyebrow as he walked over to her.  "Nothing about me?  How disappointing."  

He reached out to grab the journal from her but Ginny snatched it back and stood up, holding it close.  "What do you want, Draco?" She asked looking up to meet his gaze for the first time since he had seen her at Christmas. 

"Nothing," Draco replied, his hand dropping back down to his side.  "I was just coming up here to get some alone time, and there you were scribbling in that journal."  He smirked, "Is that the one that I gave you for Christmas?  Having an interesting conversation?"

"No," Ginny retorted.  "I returned that one.  This one doesn't write back."  She looked down at the journal before she slipped the quill out and dropped it in her satchel.  "I've been meaning to talk to you about Christmas though."  Her voice was hesitant as she watched him.

"Oh?" he asked, as if he didn't know what she was talking about.  He looked out the window for a minute and then back over at her.  "What about it?"

"Well…you know," Ginny said stumbling over her words.  "The…talk we had outside, the kiss…" The sentence trailed off as she looked down at the journal she was holding.

"What? Did you like it or something?" Draco asked, a smirk playing at the edges of his mouth. 

Ginny sighed and threw up her hands in frustration.  "I don't know why you're acting like this!  We actually had a _nice_ talk that night and we were getting along- well except for that stupid journal- and then you just had to go and kiss me and I just want to know _why_."

"Why do you think I did it?" Draco asked her honestly, all signs of his previous smirk gone.

Ginny looked at him puzzled for a minute, "I don't know! Maybe it was just the fact that it was Christmas or…maybe it was the fact that you wanted to…but that couldn't be because we're enemies or maybe…"

Draco walked over to her and put a finger up against her mouth stopping her.  "Maybe I just wanted to," he answered easily.  "Either that or I went temporarily insane and thought you were someone else." He let his finger fall.  "Take your pick." 

She stood there, watching him, perplexed not quite sure what to say.  "Let's just say…hypothetically of course…that I choose to believe the first one.  Why would you want to?"

"Malfoys don't have to have reasons for everything they do," Draco replied looking at her.  

Ginny rolled her eyes.  "You are doing it again!  I'm asking _you,_ not you _and your family_."  She watched him, thoroughly confused and frustrated.

Draco ran a hand through his hair and looked over at her.  "It was a stupid mistake, Ginny.  Just drop it.  I should have never kissed you in the first place, and I never want to again.  I don't want to talk about it anymore.  It _never happened,_ understand?" His words came out with a harsher tone than he intended, and when he looked up he was surprised to find that looked like Ginny was blinking back tears.

"Oh, sorry…" Ginny said and grabbed her satchel and deposited the journal inside.  "I'm supposed to meet Harry in the common room for a game of chess.  I'll…I'll see you later."  She hurried out of the room and down the stairs without looking back. 

Draco groaned.  "Ginny!" He called after her, but her name just echoed across the stones, she was already gone.  He hit the stone in frustration, and then slumped down to the ground.  His intention was not to make her upset, and it surprised him that his comment had even upset her in the first place.  "She should have known that was what I was going to say," he frowned as he stared out the window.

The truth was he had no idea why he had kissed her in the first place, which was probably the answer he should have given her instead the answer about it being a mistake.  While he knew the subject would come up, he had hoped that by some miracle she would have forgotten and everything would return to the way it was.

After a few moments of staring idly into space, Draco sighed and started for the stairs leading downstairs.  He wasn't sure anymore what he came up to the tower to think about, or what he wanted to accomplish, and at the moment the idea of being alone with his own thoughts was not very appealing.  He took the steps two at a time as he descended.  


	11. Dress Shopping

**~Chapter Eleven~**

Three months later Ginny and Draco were still avoiding each other, neither wanting to discuss the wedding or the events surrounding Christmas.  Draco still tutored Ginny in potions, but the topic never strayed from the work at hand.  Ginny and her mother were still making wedding plans, much to both their dismay.  Draco had kept his opinions to himself on the matter, leaving it up to Ginny, Molly, and his mother.

However, as much as Ginny had tried to avoid him, she still found herself working with him for one hour a week on potions in the dungeons.  Often they would work without talking, and when she was doing something wrong, Draco would give her a glare, signaling that her potion was headed toward disaster.  He would never actually tell her what she was doing wrong, he just assumed that she knew what she was doing wrong, often times leaving her extremely frustrated at the end of the lesson.  

Ginny pushed a strand of red hair out of her eyes and looked impatiently at her watch and then down the narrow street of Hogsmeade again.  With almost all the wedding plans in place, all that was left was to pick out her dress and the bridesmaid dresses.  After an argument with her mother about why she could not leave school to pick them out, she had agreed on the small yet nice shop she was standing in front of.  The only problem at the moment was that her mother was forty-five minutes late, and by the look of the sky, it was going to rain at any moment.  

When it started to rain a few minutes later, she retreated into the shop where a short, plump lady gave her a smile.  "You must be a Weasley…" She smiled.  "I'd recognize that red hair and those freckles anywhere… I knew your mother when she was in Hogwarts, you know."

Ginny gave the lady a forced smile.  "That's nice…" She didn't bother to mention the fact that her mother had made no reference to remembering the lady nor was this shop her mother's or Narcissa's first choice.  

"I'm Mrs. Harrison," the woman said, holding her hand out.  "I know I've heard your name before, but I just can't remember, I'm sorry."

Ginny was not the least surprised at this comment; no one ever remembered her name, only that she was a Weasley.  "Virginia," she supplied.  "But everyone calls me Ginny."

Mrs. Harrison nodded.  "Of course, now I remember.  Your mother told me that when she called to set up your appointment…you're marrying Draco Malfoy I hear?  Awful, those arranged marriages, aren't they?" She shook her head gently as idly arranged a few things on the table, constantly keeping up her chatter as she moved around the room.

Ginny sighed and looked out the window at the rain that was running down the windowpane.  She was already having a long day, and was in no mood for listening to someone babble, particularly about arranged marriages.

"When I heard I told my husband, 'that is just a shame, I'm sure she isn't happy with him.  What if she never is'?"  Mrs. Harrison paused and looked over at Ginny.  "What are you dear?  A size six maybe?"  She paused and then, not waiting for Ginny to answer, continued, "Of course I'm sure you've thought of that."  As she continued to talk she pulled dresses off of the rack and set them aside for Ginny to look at.  "What kind of dress were you thinking of?  I bet wedding dresses in green would be lovely…"

Ginny frowned slightly.  "No more green," she said abruptly.  "I don't want to see anymore green."  She brought her hand up to her forehead to rub her temple.  "Maybe something in a light blue?  Nothing ugly though, but I think the flowers are going to be a light yellow and I just thought that blue might-"

"Blue! What a beautiful color.  Blue would have been my next choice but never red, not next to that hair," the older woman continued as she moved around the room picking out dresses and setting them aside.  

Ginny couldn't help but smile at the woman as she flitted around the room looking at different dresses and quickly picking different things out.  She was, however, happy when the door opened and her mother rushed in, apologies already coming from her mouth.  "I'm so sorry I'm late, I laid down just to take a little nap and well…here I am," she laughed slightly and embraced her daughter who was still sitting down.  "How are you feeling?" She pulled back.

"Alright I guess," Ginny shrugged and looked over at Mrs. Harrison, and then lowered her voice.  "She loves to talk…let's just get this over with, alright?"

Molly smiled.  "Oh, you'll enjoy it."  She smoothed down her daughter's unruly curls and set down her purse.  "Now, have you tried anything on yet?"

Ginny shook her head.  "No, she's been pulling different dresses off the racks for me to try on…"

"Good, I'm glad I didn't miss anything," Molly replied as she looked around at the dresses which were set aside.  "Let's try some on then." 

Mrs. Harrison who seemed to have finally realized that someone else had entered her shop suddenly came over.  "Molly! It's so good to see you!" She smiled.  "I was so happy when I heard the news, even though it isn't under the best circumstances, marriages are always a joyful occasion…"

"It's good to see you again too," Molly nodded with a friendly smile.  "We're making the best of it.  Ginny says that you have already picked out a few things for us to look at?  I think we were looking at something somewhat conservative…"

Mrs. Harrison smiled.  "I'm sure you'll find something here!" She ushered Ginny into a dressing room, after handing her a dress.  Before the door could close, Molly gave her daughter an apologetic look.

After the door had closed behind her, Ginny hung the dress up on a hook behind the door and looked at it for a moment.  The dress was elaborate with lace on the sleeves and collar.  She wrinkled her nose, already knowing that this would not be the dress she would choose.  Having a feeling that if she tried to hand it back Mrs. Harrison would tell her to try it anyway, she quickly unchanged and slid the dress on.  Once she had it on she looked into the mirror and was not surprised to find that it looked just as bad on her as it had on the hanger.  "I don't think so!" She called out through the door.  "It's not even worth showing you."  She continued to stare at herself in the mirror for a minute after her mother called back that if she passed the dress back out they would hand her another.  The image of her in a white wedding dress was almost too much for her to handle and she felt herself get choked up. "Right," she said swallowing, and quickly took it off and put it back on the hanger.  

The same process went on for dress after dress: Ginny would try it on, ultimately reject it, and send it back over the top of the door.  Each was either too frilly, too plain, the wrong style, the wrong fit, or wrong in some other way.  After two hours of trying dresses on she slumped down in a chair frustrated.  "I give up," she called over the door.

Even Mrs. Harrison's pleasant attitude had diminished somewhat, and she was sitting on a chair exhausted from running around the store pulling out dress after dress.  "Well, we still have a few more dear," she replied, her tone one of exhaustion.  "There has to be one here that you like.  Maybe if I knew more of what you were looking for…?"  

Ginny sighed.  "I told you, I don't know what I'm looking for," she said frustrated.  "Maybe we should just do this some other time."

Molly sighed as she finished putting another gown on a hanger.  "Ginny, we need to get this done today.  We've put it off long enough.  Now let's just try a few more on, I'm sure there will be one that you like."  

"Fine," Ginny grumbled, obviously now in a worse mood than when she had originally entered the shop.  "But only two more and then I'm through."

Looking at the dresses that were remaining, Molly chose the remaining two carefully.  "This one is very simple," she told Ginny as she handed it to her.

Closing the door behind her again, Ginny hung the dress up and studied it for a minute.  Out of all the dresses, she had to admit this was her favorite.  The dress was made out of silk, strapless, with a modest neckline and a sheer beaded coat that spread down to the end of the dress on top of it.  The actual dress itself had beadwork on it similar to the coat; only it was so faint that it was only visible from up close.

"Are you all right, Ginny?" Molly called through the door, knocking gently after a few minutes with no response from her daughter. 

"I'm fine, Mum," Ginny called back and reached up to take the dress off the hanger.  "I'm just looking at the dress for a minute…hold on."

Molly smiled, looked over at Mrs. Harrison who smiled back, and nodded.  "I think we might have found the right one," Molly mouthed to her, and Mrs. Harrison nodded in agreement.  

Once Ginny had the dress on, she came out of the dressing room, biting her lip.  "What do you think?  Does it look alright?"

Mrs. Harrison stood up and pulled Ginny gently over to the three-way mirror.  "It looks beautiful, darling!" She gushed and placed a veil gently on top of Ginny's unruly red hair.  "Young Mr. Malfoy will be quite pleased."

"It looks better than anything else you've tried on," the mirror reasoned.

Ginny rolled her eyes at the mirror, and then answered Mrs. Harrison.  "I'm not sure anything would please him," Ginny said as she looked into the mirror, studying her reflection.  "And I'm not worried what he thinks."  Reaching up to adjust the veil, she looked at her reflection in the mirror again, falling silent.  "I like it," she said after a long time.  Out of all the dresses she tried on, this one seemed to match her the best, and she was glad to see it fit her petite frame the best as well.  "What do you think, Mum?"  Ginny turned to look at her mother, and was surprised to find tears in her mother's eyes.  "What's wrong?" She asked startled.  "Does it look that bad?"

"No no, it's not that," Molly said and smiled.  "You just look…so grown up.  It's hard to imagine you getting married so soon."  She wiped her eyes with her finger and smiled.  "You look wonderful.  I think we found the perfect dress."  

Ginny smiled and hugged her mom tightly.  "Don't worry, Mum. I'm not married yet…besides; even when I am married everything won't be that different.  I'll still be at home probably, and if I'm not I'll be visiting all the time just to get away…" Even though she was trying to console her mother, she found that she was trying to convince herself of the very same things she was telling her mother. 

"I know," Molly said with a small smile as she pulled back and gently pushed Ginny's hair behind her shoulders, turning her so she was looking in the mirror again.  "You look so beautiful," she said softly squeezing her daughter's shoulders gently.  

Ginny smiled and looked over at Mrs. Harrison.  "We'll take this one.  Now, let's get the bridesmaid's dresses out of the way.  I'll go get dressed."  Pulling away from her mother, she walked into the dressing room and started to take off the dress.

Mrs. Harrison smiled.  "I knew we'd find it." She walked over behind a counter and took out a box to put the dress in.  "It really did look beautiful on her." 

"I know, she's just growing up so fast," Molly commented wistfully, as she reached over the door to take the dress from Ginny.  She helped Mrs. Harrison fold the dress up and put it in a box.

"That does happen," the other woman nodded in agreement.  "Although, I suppose sooner for Ginny than most.  Don't worry though, things will work out.  Now, we should pick out a few bridesmaids dresses, and hope this process doesn't take quite as long."

Molly laughed.  "It should go much faster since she doesn't have to try any on, and we know what she dislikes now."  

When Ginny came out of the dressing room, her mother, Lissa, Jessica, and Hermione were already bent over the rows of dresses.  "Hello Ginny," Hermione smiled, "sorry we're a little late…we couldn't drag Jessica away from your brother."  She rolled her eyes slightly and held up a dress in front of herself, "What do you think?"

"It's alright, it took longer than I thought anyway," Ginny replied and wrinkled her nose in disgust at the dress that Hermione was holding up.  "Hermione, this is a wedding, not a sack race."

Shrugging, Hermione put the dress back on the rack.  "So when do we get to see your wedding dress?" Jessica broke in as she pulled a dress off the rack and then put it back after looking at it for a minute.  "Your mum said that you found a beautiful one."

"Later," Ginny said with a wave of her hand.  "I don't feel like trying anything else on right now." 

Lissa nodded and grinned.  "Alright, well let's get started! This is the best part of planning a wedding anyhow…" She was excitedly flipping through dresses on the rack, a pile of ones she liked next to her already.  "I love getting dressed up."

Ginny laughed and shook her head slightly.  "I already know what I want…its just finding it."  She looked over at her mother, who was deep in conversation with Mrs. Harrison, and then joined her friends at the racks of dresses.  

The girls continued to talk as they sorted through the dresses on the rack, pausing occasionally to try different ones on.  An hour later they had finally found what they were looking for: a light blue dress that came in two pieces, a shirt that had spaghetti strap, with a gather and a bow at the left side, a simple skirt, and a wrap.  After taking each girl's measurements, Mrs. Harrison ordered the dresses, and promised to owl Molly when they came in.  

After thanking Mrs. Harrison for all of her help, the five left the small shop, Molly carrying Ginny's dress in a bag.  "I'll see you later sweetheart, say hello to your brother for me," Molly said after giving Ginny a kiss on the forehead.

Ginny nodded, "Of course Mum."  She gave her mother a tired smile before she disappeared.

"Well we have an hour before we have to be back at Hogwarts," Hermione announced.  "Is anyone up for a butterbeer?"

"A butterbeer sounds good right about now," Ginny responded.  "And it's not a far walk either, and I could use just some relaxing time.  You have no idea how tiring trying on dresses is."

Lissa laughed.  "Oh, exhausting," she teased.

Ginny rolled her eyes, "Oh be quiet."  She grinned and started down the street, glad the rain had stopped.  

The girls walked the rest of the way to the Three Broomsticks in partial silence, looking into windows and watching people on the street.  When they reached the Three Broomsticks, Lissa led them over to a table in the corner and ordered them all butterbeers.  Ginny sat down and looked around.

"Looks like someone is not having a good day," Hermione nodded as she pointed to the corner where Draco was arguing with his father.

Ginny frowned.  "I feel bad for him…you have no idea what his father is like."

Jessica scoffed, "Of course we do.  They're just like each other, no wonder they fight all the time…" She gave Ginny a quizzical look.  "I can't believe you feel sorry for him, after all he's done to your brother and Harry…"

Ginny shrugged, "I don't know.  I guess you just never realize how hard life is on some people I guess." She watched as Mr. Malfoy stalked out of the Three Broomsticks, leaving Draco glaring down into his drinking angrily.

"I guess so…" Hermione said hesitantly as she watched Ginny.  "Maybe you should go talk to him?"

Jessica shot Hermione a look.  "Of course she shouldn't, it's their business."

"But she is going to marry him," Hermione pointed out.  "And while we don't like him, she does have a point."

Ginny took a sip of her butterbeer and sighed.  "Will you two stop arguing?  He wouldn't want to talk to me even if I did want to talk to him, which I don't."  

Lissa looked between the three of them and bit her lip.  "So anyway…" she started to change the topic.

Not feeling like talking anymore, Ginny looked back over at Draco's table and then back down at her drink.  "I'll be right back."  She stood up, taking her drink with her. 

Ginny walked over to the table where Draco was sitting and sat down.  "Hard day?" she asked hesitantly.  

Draco looked up and scowled.  "What do you want?"

"Just wanted to make sure you were okay.  I saw the argument you and your dad had and-"

"That was between me and my father; it's none of your business," Draco interrupted icily, still in a bad mood.  

"I might not be your favorite person," Ginny frowned, "But I'm the only one right now who's willing to listen, so why don't you just tell me what's wrong?"

"It was just another argument about my future as a death eater," Draco snapped.  "You're the one that's complicating things.  You are the one that's making everything so damn difficult for me."

At this Ginny fell silent for a moment and looked down into her drink, not sure what to say.  Finally she sighed and said softly, "I'm sorry." 

Draco waved the apology off.  "Never mind.  He would have found out sooner or later that I'm not following in his footsteps.  It's just with the marriage and then this on top of it, it's put him in a foul mood- not that I can blame him."

"You know, I was thinking the other afternoon," Ginny said slowly.  "While we might not like each other at all…we might be exactly what each other needs."  She looked up at him, looking to see his reaction.

A look of bewilderment crossed his features, and then was instantly replaced by a look of disgust.  "Why would I need a Weasley?"

"Well think about it…" Ginny said with a shrug.  "All I've ever wanted is not to be known as just another Weasley.  Not to be known as Charlie's little sister, or Ron's little sister…or something like that.  Just known for me.  And all you want is to not be a death eater and to do what you want.  This might be the way out for both of us.  This way I won't be just another Weasley-"

"Right, you'll be the Weasley that married a Malfoy," Draco interrupted. 

Ginny ignored him and continued, "and if you marry me, there is no way you can become a death eater.  We both get our freedom."

Draco nodded slowly as he ran his finger along the rim of his cup.  "Too bad we can't get our freedom from something not so…" he paused, looking for the right word, "binding."

"Well, we could try and make the best of it," Ginny told him, as she watched him.  "We don't have to like each other, but we don't have to make it hell for each other either."

Draco watched her for a second.  "What would everyone think of a Gryffindor and a Slytherin started to act like they were friends?"

"You've never cared what anyone thought before," Ginny pointed out.  "Besides, we wouldn't have to be friends just…" She shrugged.  "Not at each other's throats anymore.  Kind of like it was at…" she paused, not wanting to bring up Christmas again.

"Christmas?" he supplied, watching her, his bad mood slowly disappearing as he relaxed and leaned back against his chair.

Ginny swallowed.  "Right, Christmas… Except maybe without the kissing part."

He smirked.  "Why? Didn't you enjoy it?"

Rolling her eyes, Ginny ignored the question.  "So what do you think?  We could be exactly what we need right now…a chance at freedom- from our families in a way."

Leaning back in his chair, Draco finished his drink and set the empty cup down on the table.  "You have a point."  After another pause, he nodded.  "I'll give it a try.  We'll see how it goes, but I'm not promising anything."

Ginny nodded with a slight smile; at least he was willing to give it a try.  The two lapsed into silence, which Ginny broke a few minutes later when she said, "I found my dress." 

"Good," he nodded, not sure what else to say in reply.  "When do I get to see it?"

"At the wedding," Ginny replied before she caught sight of the clock on the wall, and stood up.  "We should get back to Hogwarts…we don't want to be late." 

Draco stood up as well, and put money down for both their drinks, which surprised Ginny, although she didn't say anything about it.  Ginny looked over at where Hermione and her other friends had been sitting only to find that they had already left. Wordlessly the two left the Three Broomsticks and headed back to Hogwarts.


	12. Infirmary

Hey guys, sorry it's been sooo incredibly long.  Been sick a lot lately again, and now I seem to have come down with bronchitis, which really stinks.  Anyway, here's chapter 12, chapter 13 should be on the way, and with school winding down I should have more time to write.  Remember, reviews are always welcome, bad or good, although good are preferred. hehe.  As always, thanks to my betas, and I don't own any of the HP characters, they belong to JK Rowling (unfortunately).

Firefly****

**Chapter 12**

Ginny walked into the infirmary and looked around at the beds that lined the walls.  She heard from Ron that Draco had fallen ill during their charms class, and had to be escorted out of class by his classmates, and she wanted to make sure he was all right.  After looking about the room for a bit, she noticed some pale blonde hair peeking out of some blankets on a bed in the corner.  His eyes were closed, and his skin, even paler, had an almost eerie glow beneath the low candlelight.  "Draco?" she whispered softly, not able to tell if he was awake or asleep.  When she received no reply, she pulled a chair up next to the bed and set her bag down next to it.

She glanced around the infirmary for Madam Pomfrey, so she could ask how Draco was doing, but could not find the older woman anywhere.  On a nightstand next to the bed stood a pitcher of water, along with a glass, and a few vials full of what Ginny assumed was medication.  A few of the vials were half empty, which made Ginny think they were what was causing the deep sleep Draco appeared to be in. 

Next to the vials and pitcher of water was a folded up letter, and when Ginny picked it up, a picture fell out.  Picking it up, she looked at it curiously.  The house appeared to be old, only slightly smaller than Malfoy Manor, and the front garden overgrown with weeds.  Vines were creeping up the front of the house giving it a sinister look, and from what she could see between the vines, the house was in need of a paint job.  The pathway up to the house could hardly be seen under all the weeds and grass, and behind the house to the left she could see the start of a forest.  Although she was curious about who's house was in the picture, and why he had it, she slipped it back into the letter, which she left unread, and put it back on the nightstand.

After watching Draco for a few more minutes, she decided that it was not likely that he was going to awaken any time soon, and she reached into her bag and pulled out some homework to work on.  Two hours later when she glanced up from her charms essay, she noticed Draco's eyes were open, and he was looking at her.  He still looked groggy from the medicine, and his eyes did not have their usual hardness to them.  "What are you doing here?" He asked after a minute, his voice scratchy.

"I just wanted to make sure you were alright," Ginny replied looking back at him as she stopped writing.  "Ron told me what happened during class, and I just thought I should come check on you…"

"Well as long as you're here, why don't you make yourself useful and get me a glass of water?" He said pushing himself into a half sitting position, and leaned his head back against the headboard of the bed.  After Ginny had poured him a glass of water, and he had taken a sip, he looked back over at her, "how long have you been here?"

"About two hours," she responded and sat back down setting the pitcher back on his nightstand.  "Not too long, I was just doing homework.  I was hoping to see Madam Pomfrey to see what was wrong, but I haven't seen her…how are you feeling?"

"Like hell."  He shifted in the bed uncomfortably.  "She said I'd be fine by tomorrow morning once I'd take all the medication, and the fever went away."

Ginny nodded, unsure of what to say, and finally commented, "Well I'm sure she's right, you're in good hands with Madam Pomfrey.  She hasn't seen anything yet that she hasn't been able to cure."

Draco scoffed.  "She's just a second-rate nurse.  She'd be useless without the medication the school has sent in."

Ginny glared at him, "You should be grateful- she's the one that's taking care of you.  If she didn't, I doubt there would be anyone else in this school that would because of the way you treat everyone."

"I simply treat everyone the way they treat me," he replied closing his eyes as he pulled the covers up more.  After pausing for a moment, he asked, "even you wouldn't help?"

"Have you ever thought that maybe if you treated everyone differently they would treat you differently?  You don't have to act mean and nasty all the time," she said, ignoring his last comment.

"Are you always this nice to ill people?" Draco asked rolling over onto his side so that he was facing her, his eyes still closed.

Ginny bit her lip.  "Sorry."  She watched him for a minute before she looked down at her hands.  "Is there any school work you need me to get for you?"

Draco opened his eyes almost sleepily, "If there is one thing you _don't_ do, it's _ask_ for schoolwork," he told her and shook his head slightly, closing his eyes again.  "You are a goody-goody, it must be all those Weasley genes."

Ginny scowled, but said, "I'll pretend you didn't say that, since you are sick."  She looked over at the nightstand.  "Who sent you this letter?"

"What letter?"  Draco opened his eyes for a second to see what she was talking about.  "Oh that one…that's from my mother, she sent it along with a picture of our new house.  Go ahead and look if you'd like."

"They bought a house without talking to us?" Ginny asked, too shocked to be angry.

"Of course not.  It's been the Malfoy family for generations, it just hasn't been lived in for years…"

Ginny opened the letter and took out the picture, and studied it for what she believed to be a sufficient period of time so he wouldn't suspect she had looked at while he was asleep before asking, "what if I don't want to live here?"

"Well you probably won't, not for two years at least.  This summer you'll be at home, and then at Hogwarts for the year, same with next year…" he paused to yawn, "but then we'll have to live somewhere.  You didn't expect you'd be living at home all your life did you?"

"I guess I just never really thought about it," Ginny said softly.  "Leaving home, living somewhere else with you…"

"I thought you wanted to get away, get out, I thought that was what this was about for you," Draco remarked.

"That's what this was about for _you_," she responded.  "I just wanted to not be just another member of the Weasley family anymore.  I never said I wanted to leave home.  I like where I live."

"Well you can't have it both ways, and since you don't have a choice in this, you're going to have to live somewhere else.  Besides, after two years, you might feel differently."

Ginny sighed.  "You're right I suppose."

"Of course I am.  Malfoys are always right.  I will even let you decorate the place- whatever combination of silver and green you prefer.  Black even.  Just no gold or red or any of that maroon junk you Gryffindors wear."

Rolling her eyes slightly, she tucked the letter back into the envelope.  "Do you mind if I keep the picture?"

Draco shook his head, "No, go ahead.  I'd just throw it out anyway."

"Thanks," she said and tucked it into her bag as Madam Pomfrey walked up to his bed. 

"Now, Mister Malfoy, how are you doing?" she asked as Ginny stepped out of the way so she could have easier access to both the bed and the vials she had left on the nightstand.

"I feel like I've been to hell and back," Draco responded as he watched her.  "Isn't there anything else you can do?  If you were really a nurse, or whatever it is you call yourself, you would have gotten rid of this by now."

"I see that while you are sick it has not affected your tongue any," the woman said dryly.  "I'm doing all I can, Mister Malfoy.  It seems that whatever you have, like you, is very stubborn."  She reached over and felt his forehead.  "Your fever is almost gone; another cooling spell should take it away completely.  You should be back to normal by tomorrow morning.  Although whether that's a good thing or not, I don't know."  She measured out some liquid into a cup and passed it over to him.  "Drink up."

Draco lifted the cup to his mouth and quickly swallowed, his face distorting at the taste.  "With all the advances in magic and medicine you would think they would at least be able to make it taste at least somewhat appealing."

Madam Pomfrey rolled her eyes slightly.  "I'll be back later to check on you.  The medicine should make you tired, so don't be alarmed if you start to fall asleep."  She gave Ginny a small smile before she disappeared to help a boy a few beds down.

"I wish you could have seen the look on your face," Ginny laughed.  "Where is Colin and his camera when you need him?"

"Very funny," Draco said crossly.

"At least you'll be well enough for your quidditch game tomorrow afternoon," Ginny pointed out as she sat back down. 

"We'll see," he said as his eyes started to close.  "It all depends on if she knows what she's doing."

Ginny sighed.  "You are so difficult.  Your fever has gone down hasn't it?"  She reached out and gently touched his forehead.  "And the cooling spell has already started to work, so just relax and let the medicine do what it's supposed to."  She let her hand trail down the side of his face to stroke his cheek gently, something her mother had done to her when she was little and couldn't sleep.

"I am relaxed," he replied, his voice sounding far away.  "Although that is helping."

Ginny smiled and continued gently for another minute, watching him.  The medicine was quickly taking effect, and she could tell that he was trying hard to stay awake.  His breathing was starting to become shallow as he slowly drifted to sleep, and he didn't seem to notice she was there anymore.  "I have to go," she whispered and started to pull her hand back.

Draco's eyes opened slightly as he reached out and grabbed her hand before she had fully pulled it away.  "Thanks," he said softly and kissed her fingers before he let her hand go and rolled over onto his side.

She stared at him for a minute, surprised, before she leaned over, picked up her bag, and started to walk out of the infirmary.  She glanced down at her hand and then looked back at the closed doors of the infirmary, confused, not quite sure what had just happened.  Although she would have liked to think that it was possible for Draco to act like a normal human being, a nagging voice in the back of her mind kept reminding her that he was under medication at the time, and had he been aware of what he was doing, probably would have yelled at her to go away.

With a small sigh, she adjusted the bag on her shoulder and started for the Gryffindor common room, where she promised she'd meet Ron for a game of chess.  When she reached the portrait hole, she muttered the password and stepped through, letting it shut behind her. 

Ron had arrived before her, and had already set up the chessboard in the corner of the room, where they could play and look out the window at the same time.  He had a quidditch magazine propped up against the board and was reading while he waited, his head resting in his hand, so engrossed in what he was reading that he didn't even notice when she sat down across from him.

Ginny set her bag down and moved one of the chess pieces.  "Your move."  She could by the chess set that it was wizard's chess, and the set would essentially break any piece that was captured.  Of course the pieces would mend themselves later, after all, no one would invent a chessboard that could only be used once.

Ron looked up, and smiled.  "Hey Gin."  He closed his magazine and set it to the side.  He looked down at the board and frowned, "You already moved? But we hadn't even decided who was going to go first."

"I go first by default," she grinned.  "If the other player is too engrossed in a magazine to notice when his opponent sits down, the opponent gets to go first."

Ron raised an eyebrow.  "I don't remember that rule."  He looked at the board for a minute before he moved a piece forward.

"I just made it up, but it's a good rule isn't it?" she asked as she continued to play.

"Well then shouldn't there also be a rule that if the opponent is late that the other player gets to go first?" Ron asked her.  "I just about gave up and went to go find Harry and Hermione.  I've been waiting for nearly a half an hour."

"Sorry, I went to see Draco in the infirmary and lost track of time," she apologized.

"What did you go see him for?" Ron frowned.  "It's not as though he's dying or anything."

"I just wanted to make sure that he was okay.  Besides, I don't see how it's any of your business anyway," she said her frown matching her brother's as she moved another piece and watched it get destroyed.

"But you _hate_ Malfoy," Ron said confusedly, half studying the board, half paying attention to the conversation.  "I just don't see why you care, that's all.  I don't care- I mean, if he were to get sick and die, why that would solve all of our problems."

"But he's not going to get sick, and he's not going to die, at least not now," she said with a shrug.  "Besides, I'm not sure I hate him anymore.  We sort of have an… understanding."  She grinned triumphantly as her piece destroyed one of Ron's. 

Ron scoffed slightly, but stayed silent.  Ginny sighed and let the game proceed in silence for the next few minutes, before she asked, "Are you ready for the quidditch game tomorrow?  The one against Slytherin?"

"Yes," he nodded and studied the board again.  "We're ready to beat them, we've been working really hard, and besides, we have Harry."  He paused, before he asked, "You are going to be there right?  On the Gryffindor side?"

Ginny frowned.  "Of course I am.  Why wouldn't I?  Besides, someone has to be there to cheer for you, it's not like anyone else will," she added, a teasing tone coming into her voice.

"Gee thanks," he said dryly, and moved another piece.  "I can always count on you for encouragement, can't I?"  He tried to give her an annoyed look, but couldn't help but smile.

"That's what little sisters are for.  How's Hermione been?  I haven't seen her lately…she always seems so busy."

"Oh you know Hermione- using that time turner again, trying to take as many classes as possible.  I tried to ask her when she would really use legilimency, but every since Snape started teaching Harry some, Hermione has been devouring everything she can about it.   I think Snape is even giving her some lessons after school, although why she'd want to spend time when him when she doesn't have to, I'll never know.  I swear she reads more books in a week that I have in my whole life."

"I didn't know you'd ever read a book," Ginny said as she watched another one of her pieces being destroyed by one of Ron's pieces.  "I hate chess," she announced sullenly, leaning back in her chair.

"You only hate it when you lose," Ron pointed out.  "I can't help it that you're a bad player.  You would think that after these years of playing against me you would have learned something."

Ginny shrugged slightly, "maybe you just weren't a very good teacher, or I just didn't pay attention."

"It's probably that you weren't paying attention- I'm an excellent teacher, just ask Harry," he said as he moved another piece on the board after studying where each piece was on the board carefully. 

The two continued to play in silence for a while, until Ron announced triumphantly, "Checkmate!"

Ginny nodded, and yawned.  "Well that's finally over…I'm going to go up to bed.  Good job."  She gave her brother a quick hug and then headed up the stairs, leaving him to clean up after the game.

"'Night, Gin," he called after her, and as she walked up the stairs, she heard him ask Harry if he was up to a game.


	13. A Twist

Thanks for all the notes and reviews and such. Sorry this took so long…. I could give you excuses and explanations why it took so long, but I'll skip that. My beta is unfortunately really busy and so I was not able to run it by her; all spelling errors/grammar errors/factual errors concerning the books (which I must admit I have not read in a while), are mine and mine alone.

Again, I do not own the characters, or the books, they are J.K Rowlings. I'm not sure this plot is even that original…. but hopefully the little twist in this chapter will make it a little more original. Enjoy.

**Chapter 13**

Ginny pushed Hermione through the crowds of people that had already filled the quidditch stands the next morning. "Did you _really_ have to bring that book?" she asked with a slight frown, as she led her to where Lissa and Jessica were saving them seats.

Hermione shrugged. "The game won't start for a few more minutes, and I have some reading I have to catch up on…you know I usually don't miss games, I've just been so swamped lately…"

"We know," Ginny said as she sat down and pulled Hermione down beside her. "But there is _always_ time for quidditch….right?"

Jessica and Lissa nodded enthusiastically, and Hermione sighed softly, and set her book down under her seat. "It should be a good game at least- Gryffindor versus Slytherin always makes for an interesting match."

"Especially with the final games for the quidditch cup coming up so soon," Lissa pointed out as she looked towards the Gryffindor end of the field to see if the players had come out yet. "If I were Harry I'd be throwing up right about now."

"I think he's used to it," Ginny said with a shrug. "It doesn't seem to bother him."

"Either that, or he's just not throwing up because he usually don't eat on the mornings of his quidditch games," Hermione pointed out, following Lissa's gaze down to the field.

"Well, whatever it does, it seems to work for him," Ginny replied as she saw Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall take their seats in the teacher's box. There was a tense look on Professor McGonagall's face as she nodded stiffly to Professor Snape, who was seated to her left, and gave no indication of having seen her.

Hermione, having seen the icy exchange between the professors, frowned slightly. "I still think that while it is entertaining, these rivalries are taken a little too far…I mean look at Professor Snape!"

"He doesn't look any different to me," Jessica said as she glanced over at their potions instructor. "Besides, the rivalries are part of what makes it so much fun."

"Here they come!" Ginny said loudly in order to be heard over the screams that had now filled the Gryffindor portion of the stadium.

"Ginny, isn't that your mother and father?" Hermione asked suddenly as she tugged at Ginny's arm and pointed towards two people who were taking a seat next to Dumbledore and Lucius Malfoy in the teacher's box.

Ginny tore her eyes off of the field and looked up to where Hermione was pointing. "You're right; it is…I wonder what they are doing here…" She stared at them, perplexed. "Maybe they just decided to come see the game. Mr. Malfoy comes all the time, so it is possible…" She shrugged, and turned her attention back to the field where Madam Hooch had suddenly beckoned for the players to gather around her, and was explaining something that appeared to make each team very angry.

"I wonder what's going on," Hermione said with a frown. "Usually they only cancel games if something very serious is going on, and I haven't seen anything unusual happening lately…"

"Maybe it's nothing," Lissa said hopefully, "it could just be that they have to reschedule because of something else. You never know. The school has done stranger things."

Ginny frowned, "You think it has something to do with the fact that my parents are here? I just thought they might be here to watch the game, but then again they _never_ come to watch games…" She let her thought trail off as she looked over to the teacher's box, where her parents had gotten up and were exiting the box with Mr. Malfoy and Dumbledore.

"I'm sure it doesn't," Jessica said as the teams started flying off the field, and the announcer came over the microphone explaining that there was a delay, and that the game would resume in a few hours.

"I'm going to find out what's going on," Ginny said and stood up, trying to get out of the bleachers. "I'll find you guys later…maybe my parents can tell me why the game has stopped, and more importantly- why they are here."

Hermione nodded. "Come to the common room later and tell us what they say, we'll be there in an hour or two, I have some research to do in the library first. In a way, canceling this game is a good thing, I have so much homework due tomorrow and I was hoping to get a head start on my essay for-"

Ginny didn't stay to hear the rest of what Hermione was saying, she was already pushing her way down the stands and scanning the crowd for her mother and father. It was easy to find them; red hair was easy to spot in a crowd of black robes. When she finally was able to reach them, they were already walking towards the entrance to Hogwarts with Dumbledore and the Malfoys, deep in conversation. She fell into step beside them, and gently grabbed her father's arm, pulling him away from the rest of the group. "Dad what is going on?" she asked him with a slight frown. "You and Mum never come to Hogwarts, not during the year anyway…"

"Come with us, there is someone from the ministry here to talk to us," Arthur explained and put his arm around his daughter's shoulders, hurrying her along so they could catch up with the rest of the group which had already entered the building.

Ginny followed silently as they walked through the building to the door in front of Dumbledore's office. She heard him mumble the password, and the door opened. Once they were inside his office, Dumbledore made a sweeping motion around the room with his hand. "Have a seat- wherever you would like."

Ginny chose a chair off to the right of his desk where she could look at everyone else, and watched as they each chose chairs or old couches to sit down on. She had been in Dumbledore's office once before, in her first year, and had found it fascinating. Books and portraits lined the walls, and knick knacks and old wizarding tools covered the desks and tables. While the room had an old and somewhat musty feel to it, it was comfortable, and reminded her of home.

"I'm sorry the game had to be postponed, but things like this need to be taken care of immediately," spoke up a man who was standing next to Dumbledore's desk. "I know Professor Dumbledore will make sure to reschedule it for you."

Dumbledore smiled slightly and looked over at Ginny and Draco. "I hope you remember Mr. Bloor, from the Ministry. He visited your house this summer when you both signed the contract."

Draco nodded to him, a look of recognition crossing his features. "Of course, how could we forget?" He asked dryly, "It's not everyday that someone forces us to sign our lives away."

Ginny looked between her parents and Dumbledore. "I thought we had this taken care of. It isn't his birthday yet, we haven't broken the contract or anything, what is this about?"

Mr. Bloor shifted his weight to his other foot looking uncomfortable. "Well it appears that there has been a mistake…"

"A _mistake_?" Mr. Malfoy asked coldly, "what kind of mistake?"

"Well, we discovered while going over another contract that the man who allegedly signed the document for the Ministry, in fact, did not sign it at all. The signature is a merely a forgery, done by an intern who was at the ministry at the time…" Mr. Bloor let the sentence trail off, growing red in the face.

Ginny looked at her mother and father and then back at Mr. Bloor, stunned. "So does this mean that it's not valid?"

"Well…yes and no," Mr. Bloor said hesitantly. "We've never had something come up like this before, and the signatures of your grandparents are still there, and technically the debt is still owed. Since this is a ministry mistake, and in no way connected with you, we have decided to give you a few options."

"We'll just pay the debt and forget all this nonsense," Mr. Malfoy spoke up, his voice having a slightly happy tone to it for once.

Mr. Bloor ignored the outburst from Mr. Malfoy and continued. "The ministry held a meeting on this, and since this case is extremely unusual and involves minors, we have decided that to let Ginny and Draco decide what they would like to do. It is the ministry's belief that they are old enough to make the decision for themselves, and that they are mature enough to do so. Either the debt can be paid, or we can write up a new contract, since these are very usual circumstances, or we can simply go along with the contract as it stands," Mr. Bloor explained and glanced over at Ginny and Draco. "We only have a few days to decide though. I will be back on Monday to hear your answer. If you have any questions you can always send me an owl at the ministry, I'll be happy to answer them."

Ginny glanced over at Draco, to see what his reaction to the news was, and he looked just as stunned as she did. She was about to say something when she heard a sudden outburst from Mr. Malfoy.

"You're letting two minors decide?" Mr. Malfoy snapped, growing angry. "If the ministry was the one who made a mess of the contract in the first place then it should be void!"

"I think I have to agree with Lucius on this one," Mr. Weasley said as he looked at Mr. Bloor, "I don't understand why the ministry would vote this way. The ministry has never wanted to give such decisions to minors before."

"I don't know all the reasoning behind it, or why they decided the way they did, I simply know what they decided," he answered, and then smiled slightly, "and you know the ministry, "not everything they do makes sense."

"I'm sure there is some reason behind all of this. The ministry does not do anything without a reason, no matter how absurd it may seem to us," Dumbledore spoke up.

"You are right about that," Mr. Weasly said nodding, and looked over at Ginny. "I know they'll make the right choice- we are talking about Ginny and Draco here, so why don't we just pay the debt now and then we can all leave and get back to our normal schedules?"

"I think that is a wonderful idea," Mr. Malfoy said with a nod, and looked at Mr. Bloor, "How much is it?"

Mr. Bloor cleared his throat. "Well it is a substantial amount, but first I have to hear from Draco and Ginny that this is what they'd like to do." He turned his attention to the two who were still seated, listening to the conversation.

"Maybe we'd like a day or so to think about it," Draco replied, glancing over at his father, no expression on his face. "After all, it is our decision."

Mr. Malfoy glared at his son and before things could get out of hand, Mrs. Weasley stepped in. "I think it would be a good idea for them to take a day or two to think about it. We wouldn't want them to rush into anything, now would we?"

Mr. Bloor nodded, "Of course. I'll be hearing from you on Monday then." He turned to Dumbledore and gave him a slight nod, "Thank you for taking time out of your schedule to let me come here."

Dumbledore nodded, "Of course." He watched as Mr. Bloor left the room. He then turned to the Weasleys and Malfoys. "I'll leave you alone for a few minutes, I'm sure you have a few things that you would like to discuss." Dumbledore stood, and left the room, the only sound that could be heard as he left was the slight swish of his robes against the stone tile of the floor.

After a few minutes of silence, Lucius Malfoy spoke up, "I don't even know what there is to think about. It's obvious that this wedding will be called off, given the choice, a Malfoy would _never_ marry a Weasley." He turned up his nose slightly, glaring at Ginny's parents, who were intentionally ignoring him.

"Ginny, we'll go with whatever you decide," Molly Weasley spoke up. "However, we would like to think that you would have better taste than that…" As she spoke, her eyes slowly shifted over to Mr. Malfoy for emphasis, and then back to Ginny.

Lucius scowled. "As though a Weasley would know anything about taste."

Mr. Weasley stepped forward to say something, but Molly put a restraining hand on his arm. "I think we should just go- standing around throwing insults at one another can not do any good- no matter how good it might feel." She kissed Ginny's forehead gently. "Owl us when you decide what you are doing, or if you need anything…" Ginny nodded and watched as her parents walked away, not quite sure what to say, still stunned.

The Malfoys exchanged looks before they too got up and followed the Weasleys out of the room, but not before Mr. Malfoy paused and gave Draco a disapproving look.

When they had left, Ginny turned to Draco, feeling somewhat awkward. "Now what?"

Draco shrugged, and got up and walked over to Dumbledore's desk and picked up a paper weight and passed it from hand to hand, never looking up at Ginny. "Whatever we want. It's up to us, or rather, up to you."

"Don't you think we should talk about this? Decide what we're going to do?" Ginny asked, becoming agitated as he put the paper weight down and began to rearrange papers on Dumbledore's desk. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing," Draco responded, but stopped shuffling papers. "It's not my decision; it's yours, so I suppose it's up to you to decide what we do." He set the papers down in a different spot than they had been, and looked up at her.

"It affects the both of us though," Ginny said with a frown, "don't you care?"

Draco shrugged slightly. "We've already been over the reasons for getting married and the reasons not to, there's no sense in going over it again. I'm going down to the Great Hall to get something to eat." He walked past her and out of Dumbledore's office, leaving Ginny standing in the middle of the office alone, a frown on her face.

Ginny turned to pick up her coat from the chair when Dumbledore appeared in the doorway. "This should certainly generate more discussion than the quidditch game," Dumbledore commented as he walked to his desk and rearranged his papers again as though he had known Draco had rearranged them.

She nodded, silently, not quite sure what to say. Dumbledore sat down in his chair, and watched her. After a moment he said, "I cannot tell you what to do… only you can decide that."

"I know that," she replied, somewhat defensively. "I didn't expect you to tell me what to do." She played with a loose thread on her robes, avoiding his eyes, because she knew if she looked at him he would realize that that was precisely what she wanted him to do.

"A person's life can only be determined by two things: fate, and of course, their actions," Dumbledore commented. "Your decision should be based on what you believe, and what you think, not what everyone is telling you."

"And what if I don't know what I want?" Ginny replied as she looked up at Dumbledore. "Isn't there a spell that you could give me that would help me make up my mind?"

Dumbledore laughed slightly. "No spells can help with this…No this is something that you have to deal with on your own. Just remember, you would not be given anything that you could not handle." He let silence hang in the air for a few minutes before he cleared his throat and said, "Now, I believe you have some thinking to do?" He stood up, signaling that their talk was over. "And I am sure that there are quite a few people who are waiting to talk to you and persuade your mind in one way or another."

Ginny nodded, stood up, and walked towards the door. When she reached the door, she glanced over her shoulder at Dumbledore who was now searching for a book on the bookshelf behind him, his back to her. With a sigh, she left the room gently closing the door behind her.


	14. A Decision

Eh, okay so it took me a little longer than I had thought…I had actually started this a while ago and I planned on getting it out earlier, but of course nothing ever goes as I plan. Thanks to all of you who continue to review, despite the fact that it takes me forever to write and what I come up with usually isn't that great. Hopefully some of you will like this chapter better than last- and all I have to say in defense of the last chapter is…well that's what I wanted to happen, so it happened. Maybe it didn't exactly transfer from my brain to paper very well…but I did the best I could. This chapter, unfortunately, has only been beta-ed by me and Microsoft Word so any mistakes/inconsistencies/stupid errors are mine and mine alone. As always all characters in this fic, save one or two belong to JK Rowling. Enjoy.

**Chapter 14**

Ginny glanced down at the blank piece of parchment in front of her. She was supposed to be writing an essay for Professor Flitwick's class, but her attention kept drifting. It had been two days since she had met with Mr. Bloor in Dumbledore's office, and she hadn't been able to think of anything since. She still was no closer to making a decision than when she had left Professor Dumbledore's office, and Draco, who refused to tell her what he thought, did not help any.

"This is supposed to be ten inches long right…? Or was it eighteen….? Ginny?" Lissa asked with a frown as she tried to get her attention. "Hello…Ginny?"

Ginny looked up quickly, having snapped out of her thoughts. "Yeah….sorry, ten inches."

Lissa rolled her eyes and looked at the blank piece of parchment in front of Ginny. "You do realize this is due tomorrow right? And those ten inches aren't going to write themselves…"

Jessica frowned, "You don't have to be so harsh Lissa. You know she has a lot on her mind- besides, who wants to write this stupid essay anyway? I don't see yours going that quickly."

"Sorry, I just zoned out for a minute," Ginny said apologetically. "I know it's due tomorrow. I'll get it done; I just can't seem to concentrate. I only have one more day to decide what I'm going to do."

"I don't see what's taking you so long to decide," Jessica replied. "It's Draco…you've hated him for forever, and you've been waiting for a chance to get out of this. The decision should be easy."

"That's what I thought too," Ginny replied with a sigh as she opened her text book, determined to get started on her essay.

"I don't know if I would know what to do," Lissa spoke up. "I know its Draco, but it seems like you two have been getting along lately… Besides, you shouldn't do what everyone" she paused, giving Jessica a pointed look, "tells you to. I think if you want to marry Draco, you should."

Ginny bit her lip. "I don't know. For some odd reason there is this nagging voice in the back of my head that keeps telling me that I shouldn't… It would be easier if I knew what he thought, but this is the one subject he _won't_ offer an opinion on."

"Then I guess it's up to you," Lissa commented absentmindedly as she continued to write.

"I made a list the other night, pros and cons, it was Hermione's idea, unfortunately it didn't do much to help me decide…" Ginny remarked, writing her name on the parchment.

"That sounds like it would be Hermione's idea," Jessica said shaking her head slightly. "Only Hermione would try and help you solve this by making a list."

Ginny shrugged. "It helped a little bit." She looked down at her piece of parchment again. "Writing ten inches is going to be impossible. Do you think Professor Flitwick would notice if I didn't turn it in?"

"Probably, nice try though," Jessica said as she glanced down at her own essay. "He's absentminded and oblivious, but not _that_ oblivious. Besides, even if he didn't notice, you won't know anything for the next text. You know his tests are always on the same topic as our essays."

Ginny wrinkled her nose. "Now you sound like Hermione. I would have thought you would be the last one worried about passing a test." When Jessica simply shrugged, Ginny changed the topic. "Where is Hermione anyway? I haven't seen her in a few days."

"She's probably in the library or helping Ron with something. There were a few spells he was having trouble with, I offered to help but he said Hermione would show him later," Lissa replied, frowning slightly.

Ginny nodded, missing the upset look on Lissa's face. "I'm sure Hermione will teach him the right way- it always takes Ron forever to learn how to say spells properly. He has worse pronunciation than George."

Lissa hesitated for a moment, and then asked, "He's not going out with Hermione right? I mean they're just good friends…right?"

"Yeah, they're good friends, I have a feeling they like-" Ginny stopped mid-sentence. "Why do you care?"

Lissa shrugged. "I don't. I was just trying to make conversation." Jessica rolled her eyes, and opened her mouth to comment but Lissa stopped her with a look.

Ginny put down her pen and sighed, staring at the blank parchment in front of her. "I'm not getting any work done here; I think I'm going to go for a walk. I'll see you guys later." She stood up and grabbed her books and parchment and shoved them into her bag.

"Okay…if you need help with your essay later, you can find us. Most likely we'll be sitting here struggling through our essays…still…" Jessica said dryly.

She laughed and picked up her bag. "Good luck. Maybe I'll see you later." She threw her bag over her shoulder and headed out of the common room. Once outside the portrait hole she paused, not sure where she wanted to go. After a moment of thinking she turned left and headed towards the Astronomy tower.

It only took her a few minutes to reach her final destination, and when she did, she was surprised to see someone already there, staring out the small window in the wall opposite the door. Ginny paused, startled by the sight of someone else there, and after a moment said, "Sorry…" and turned to go.

The figure at the window turned around. "You can stay," said a voice, which after a moment Ginny realized was Draco's.

"I uh, didn't realize you were up here," Ginny said turning around again. She idly fiddled with the strap on her bag, not quite sure what to say next. She hadn't talked to him since the afternoon in Dumbledore's office.

He nodded. "Obviously."

"So, how have you been?" Ginny asked, not moving out of the door way.

"Not bad. Dodging owls from my father every hour or so," he responded, and sat down on the window sill. "He keeps reminding me about family honor and all."

She winced slightly. "I've been lucky; my parents haven't sent me one owl- I think they're trying to let me decide on my own…"

"And have you decided?" Draco inquired casually.

Ginny shook her head. "I was kind of hoping that _we_ could decide- together. I want to know what you think."

"I think that you're a Weasley and I'm a Malfoy," Draco responded. "I think that if we did decide to…continue with this, it would never work."

Ginny frowned. "For once, can we just forget our last names?"

"Well, it was our last names that got us into this," Draco quipped.

"You know, it's times like these when I really wonder why it's taking me so long to make a decision!" she snapped.

Draco smirked. "Could it be that you just can't admit that you don't think I'm that bad after all?"

"Well I haven't exactly seen you jumping up and down at the chance to get out of this either!" Ginny shot back.

"It is _not_ my decision to make!" he snapped, starting to get angry. "You heard Mr. Bloor. The decision is _yours_."

"Fine then, if it were yours, what would you decide?" She asked, stepping out of the doorway and into the center of the room so she could see him better.

Draco stared into her eyes for a minute and then responded, "Everyone is right; we have a chance to get out of this, and we should take it."

"Is that what you really think? Or just what your father has been telling you?" Ginny challenged, looking back at him.

Draco paused for a moment. "It's what I think."

Ginny nodded and looked down at her hands for a minute. She didn't know why she was surprised; she should have known what his answer would be before he even said it. Before she could say anything, Draco continued, "Besides, my family has a reputation to uphold- and I wouldn't want to be the first in a long chain of Malfoys to break it by marrying a Weasley."

"Well, heaven forbid that you disappoint your father and your family! I can't believe that I actually thought that you might be different from your father. When, in reality, you are just like him!" Ginny said indignantly.

Draco stepped back, livid. "I am _not_ like my father."

Ginny ignored his reply. "You were right. This would never work. Ending this is our only option, and I think it's the best one."

"Agreed," Draco said tensely, still livid from her earlier comment.

"Good," she nodded. "And when this is over I don't ever want to talk to you again." Without waiting to hear his response, she turned and ran down the steps, tears starting to form in her eyes. She was almost to the bottom of the stairs when she heard his voice calling "likewise!" after her.

**Author's Note: **

Okay, I know this wasn't one of my best chapters by far, and trust me I tried re-writing it a couple times- it didn't get any better. Hopefully you all don't hate me _too_ much. I know there were a lot of "if you don't make Draco marry Ginny then I will stop reading" reviews towards the beginning. I had this planned a loooooong time ago, and I decided to stick to it, despite what some people have said. Anyway, congrats if you've stuck with the story this far!


	15. Alright, let's try this again

Okay- this is for everyone who complained about the last chapter, sorry to those of you who hated it, thank you to the one person who enjoyed it  I decided to rewrite the end, and while this isn't the end, I thought I'd post it, see if people liked it better than the last chapter (although I think after reading reviews almost anything is better than the last chapter I had posted! (which I took down by the way))

As always, I don't own the HP characters or settings or anything, those all belong to JK Rowling.

Enjoy.

Chapter 15

"He is infuriating!" Ginny said angrily as she slammed the door to her room shut and sat down on her bed.

"Who is?" Jessica asked looking up from her Defense Against the Dark Arts book which was lying across her lap.

"Draco Malfoy," Ginny replied, still upset. "I try to sit down and talk with him- have a serious talk, and all he can do is give the whole 'The Malfoys have a reputation' spiel. He's done what his father wants him to do for so long he doesn't even know what _he_ wants anymore!"

Jessica looked over at her confused. "I think I missed something… what are you talking about?"

She sighed. "The reason why my parents are here is because we had another meeting with Mr. Bloor- the guy from the ministry… he came to tell us they found a way for us to get out of the wizard promise….Only Draco refuses to give his opinion on what he thinks we should do. He keeps telling me it's my decision, which makes no sense! This affects him too, you would think he would at least have an opinion to share- he hasn't been worried about sharing it before."

"Well that's good right? I mean, this way you can just get rid of him- that's what you've wanted since you found out," Jessica pointed out logically.

"I know," Ginny said with a sigh as she fiddled with a loose thread on her blanket. "It just infuriates me that he won't give me an answer- and I know it shouldn't matter but…" She stopped, and shrugged.

Jessica looked at her friend for a minute, her eyes wide. "Don't tell me you're actually starting to _like_ Draco."

Ginny bristled. "I _never_ said I liked him, I'm just saying that I wish he would give me an answer when I ask him a question! He gives his opinion freely enough on other topics, why not this one? It's just irritating that's all."

"Maybe he's won't answer you because he doesn't know what you're going to say, and he doesn't want to be the only one who says to end it or go through with it," Jessica replied.

"You don't actually think he wants to go through with it do you?" Ginny asked looking up, surprised.

"I don't know," she replied. "You know him better than I do, what do you think?"

"I think…" Ginny paused. "I don't know what he thinks- I know what his _family _thinks, and I know they would like to end this and put it behind them and forget that it ever happened."

"What do your parents think? Are they as upset as the Malfoys are?"

"I don't know- they've never really explicitly said. I have a feeling that they aren't exactly thrilled, but they aren't devastated like Mr. Malfoy. Now Ron definitely does not want Draco as a brother-in-law; he's made that extremely clear."

"You can't exactly expect him to be thrilled," Jessica pointed out. "They have hated each other for as long as they've known each other."

"If we choose to end this, we get the money they owed us, which I know could help…" Ginny commented, more to herself than to Jessica.

"And if you don't?" Jessica prompted.

"Then I have to get married to Draco Malfoy," she replied frowning. "This should be an easy decision to make, I made it weeks ago."

"Things can change in a few weeks," she responded, got up, and walked over to sit down in front of Ginny on her bed. "Ginny, tell me the truth, do you like Draco?"

Ginny looked away from Jessica, flushing a little, although she wasn't sure if it was because she was angry on embarrassed. "What kind of question is that?"

"Well if you can answer that question, then you can decide what to do," She replied, as if Ginny should have been able to figure that out for herself.

"Just because I might like him, doesn't mean I want to marry him necessarily."

"Maybe you should try talking to him again- it couldn't hurt," she pointed out, and stood up, grabbing her books off her bed. "I have to get going- I'm supposed to meet Hermione in the library to go over some potions homework, we can talk more later." Ginny nodded, and watched as her friend left the room. A minute later, she stuck her head back in, "By the way, Ron is looking for you…I think he's down in the common room."

Ginny nodded. "Thanks." She didn't feel like talking to Ron at the moment, but if he was sitting in the common room, she wouldn't have a choice; if she wanted to leave her room and go somewhere else, she'd have to walk right by him. Deciding that she didn't want to have to deal with her brother, or anyone else at the moment, she picked up her charms book and started her homework, hoping it would take her mind off of her meeting with Mr. Bloor.

* * *

Remembering that he had left his books in his room, Draco decided to stop and get them before he went to class. As he approached the door to the Slytherin common room, he noticed someone waiting outside. He recognized the figure outside the door instantly, and was debating whether or not to turn around, when the man noticed him approaching. "Father," Draco said with a slight nod as he approached the door and the figure waiting in front of it. 

"Draco," he responded, with a nod identical to his son's. "I thought we should talk, especially in light of the new circumstances." Draco stayed silent, waiting for his father to continue. "I think we should go somewhere private," he continued, stepping to the side so some third year Slytherins could enter the common room through the portrait hole. "Professor Snape has given us his classroom to use for a few minutes before his next class starts."

Draco nodded, he already knew what the conversation would entail, but he also knew that his father would not let him postpone the conversation. Instead of arguing, he followed his Father to Professor Snape's classroom. Once inside, he leaned against one of the desks and looked at his Father who had already started pacing in front of the classroom. "I already know what you are going to say," Draco commented after a few minutes of silence had passed.

"Then you know how important and imperative it is that you end this- now," Lucius said, as he stopped pacing to look over at his son. "Not only is my reputation at stake, your entire future is at stake. Do you think You-Know-Who is going to want someone who is married to one of Dumbledore's biggest supporters and friends with Harry Potter?"

"I've heard this speech before, can we just skip to the end where you remind me once again that I am a Malfoy, and because of that I must do what is in the best interest of the family name?" Draco asked in an irritated tone.

Lucius scowled. "You obviously do not understand what is at stake here- for both of us, or you wouldn't be making jokes about something as important as this." He adjusted his robes, and started for the door, stopping a few feet away to turn and say, "I'll save the rest of the speech for later, since you obviously know it so well, but I want this to go away, money is no object when it comes to protecting the family name."

"Of course, the family name is the most important thing in the world," Draco commented sarcastically. "And to think, I hold the fate of the Malfoys."

Lucius, who was over halfway to the door, stopped and turned around, his eyes blazing. It only took him a few seconds to close the distance between him and his son, and he said in a low icy voice, "do not mess up everything that I-we- have worked for. If you feel the need to rebel there are other ways to do it without marrying a Weasley. Am I clear?"

It was at this moment that Professor Snape entered the room, and cleared his throat. "Lucius, I hate to cut your…conversation short, I do have a class starting in five minutes, and the students will be arriving at any moment."

Lucius nodded, and stepped back, adjusting his robes again. "Of course Severus and thank you for letting us use your classroom." He turned back to Draco, "I hope I have made myself clear, I do not want to have to make another visit here to clear this matter up myself."

Without responding, Draco stalked past his Father, and Professor Snape, who stepped aside to let him pass. Lucius rubbed his temple, and sighed. "I don't believe he understands the gravity of this decision, Severus. If only-" He stopped short when students started to enter the classroom, and without another word to Severus, he left.


	16. Girls Night

Okay sorry guys…I'm not even going to make excuses this time- I'm just a lazy bum who hasn't felt like writing in a while. One more chapter after this and then it's done…

Hopefully you all like this, and thanks to everyone who continues to review despite the fact that it takes me forever to update.

As always HP belongs to JK Rowling, not me unfortunately. All characters and places are hers except for Lissa and Jessica who belong to friends of mine.

And as always, reviews are appreciated.

Any grammatical/spelling errors are mine, due to the fact that I currently do not have a beta reader.

Enjoy,

Fye R. Fly

**Chapter 16**

"Not your best work, Miss. Weasley," Professor McGonagall said as she set Ginny's paper down in front of her. Ginny didn't reply, but picked up the paper cringing when she saw the grade at the top. If she didn't start concentrating, she wouldn't pass Professor McGonagall's class- or any of her classes for that matter.

"I would like you all to read pages 258-325 for homework tonight," McGonagall said, as she walked to the front of the classroom and looked out at all of them. "And I suggest you pay attention to what you are reading- you never know when your next pop quiz will be." She sat down at her desk, signaling the end of class.

Ginny stood up, and picked up her books, shoving her paper into her transfiguration book, not wanting to think about it at the moment. "Thank goodness it's Friday," Lissa said, as she walked up to Ginny.

Jessica nodded in agreement. "And it's a Hogsmeade weekend which makes it even better… I'm starting to run low on Chocolate Frogs." She glanced over at Ginny, "Do you think you could convince Fred and George to tell us how to sneak out tonight?"

Ginny shook her head, "I don't think so…I mean, we can ask, but I doubt they'll give you a straight answer. And if they do give you directions, I don't know if I would trust them. It would be just like them to give you directions or a spell that would end you up in some remote place."

"Well, maybe we can do something else then," Lissa said shrugging. "Girls night or something-we haven't had one of those in a long time. You know, raid the kitchen, take over the common room… play games, talk…"

"Sorry guys, I just don't really feel like doing anything tonight, I was just going to go back to my room, have fun though," Ginny said as she picked up her bag and started out of the room.

Lissa sighed and looked over at Jessica before she ran up to Ginny and grabbed her arm. "Come on Gin…you can't hibernate in your room forever."

"I know," she answered, adjusting her bag on her shoulder. "I just have some work to finish, and I've been so preoccupied lately that I haven't gotten any of it done."

"It's Friday night," Jessica pointed out. "You have all weekend for homework- doing something fun for one night won't be that bad."

Ginny sighed, and nodded, knowing that her friends would bother her all night and she wouldn't ever get anything done if she didn't agree. "Alright… you guys win," she said, relenting. She gave the two girls who were standing in front of her a slight smile, knowing that they only wanted to help.

"Why don't you guys go find Hermione and I'll meet you in our room in about a half an hour?" Lissa said with a grin. Not waiting for an answer, she brushed past them and hurried down the hall.

"I think she's up to something," Ginny said looking over at Jessica, who merely shrugged.

"Maybe, but that's not always a bad thing. Come on, let's go get Hermione."

A half an hour later Ginny found herself sitting on her bed in her pajamas, copies of witch weekly scattered around the bed.

"Hold still," Jessica said trying to pull a brush through Hermione's unruly hair.

"You're hurting me," Hermione protested bringing her hand up to touch her scalp. "I really don't mind it the way it is…it doesn't bother me."

"But it bothers me," she replied, causing Ginny to smile. "You'll love it when it's done I promise."

Ginny shook her head and smiled at Hermione. "Trust me, it's no use trying to resist- she won't listen to you."

"I won't," Jessica put in.

"Fine," Hermione grumbled and picked up one of the _Witch Weekly_ issues sitting near her foot.

"I hope you guys are hungry," Lissa said as she pushed the door closed with her food, her hands too full to shut it.

Ginny stood up quickly helping Lissa before she dropped everything on the floor. "What did you do? Bring the entire kitchen with you?" she asked laughing slightly as she dumped the food on Jessica's bed.

"The house elves wanted to make sure we had enough…sweet of them don't you think?" She replied picking up a cookie and taking a bite.

"What are these for?" Ginny asked picking up some containers that looked like they had been taken out of the potions class room.

Looking up from the magazine Hermione's eyes went wide when she recognized what was in the vials. "You didn't take those from Snape's office did you?"

"Of course not," Lissa said defensively. "I had someone get them from Snape's office for me."

"You do realize if Snape finds out you'll be in big trouble right?" Ginny asked her, still looking down at the jar she was holding.

"He won't find out," she said with a slight wave of her hand, as if dismissing the concern.

Jessica reached forward and grabbed a cookie, taking a bite before she went back to tackling Hermione's hair. "You still haven't told us what they're for."

Reaching forward, Lissa grabbed a book off her nightstand and flipped it open to a marked page, and held it out for Ginny to see. "That's what it's for."

Ginny reached out and took the book from Lissa, and studied the page in front of her. "We can't make this Lissa… we don't know the first thing about it."

"We can't, but Hermione can," she responded. "It's simple if you know what you're doing."

Hermione irritably swatted away Jessica's hands and reached forward to take the book out of Ginny's hands. "What can I do?" she asked and looked down at the page that Lissa had opened the book to. After studying the page for a few minutes, she shook her head. "I don't think this is a good idea. You have to mix everything carefully and there's no proof that it actually works."

"What is it?" Jessica asked.

"It's a potion…or rather a special tea that you mix using some potions ingredients," Hermione answered. "Legend is that it tells you what to do, or rather, helps you to decide what to do. It's completely unreliable though. Most wizards have stopped using it completely because it's so unreliable."

"There are also cases in which it has worked," Lissa pointed out. "Besides, it can't hurt anything…the worse that happens is that she tries it and it doesn't work, and then she's just back to where she was."

Hermione looked up from the book and over at Ginny. "It's up to you…it hasn't been known to have any dangerous side effects, and it does look relatively simple."

Ginny sighed, and looked over at Lissa, who was anxiously waiting for her response. "When you said 'girl's night' this wasn't exactly what I had in mind."

Lissa shrugged. "Well, we can do the regular girl's night stuff afterwards. It can't hurt…and you need to make a decision you're running out of time."

"I guess it couldn't hurt," Ginny said slowly.

"Great!" Lissa said, and jumped up to drag her desk over next to the bed. She picked up the piles of books and papers that were sitting on top and dropped them onto the floor, not caring that they were now horribly out of order. "Where do we start?"

Hermione pulled the vials of ingredients out from amidst the junk food that Lissa had brought up to the bed, and set them on the table in front of her, the book open on her lap. Ginny watched as she carefully measured out each ingredient and mixed them into a glass that was sitting on table in front of her. After a few minutes of mixing ingredients, she pulled out her wand and carefully heated up the drink to the proper temperature. Fifteen minutes later she looked over at Ginny. "Alright, it's ready…" She picked up the glass and handed it over to her. "You don't have to try it if you don't want to."

Ginny took the glass from Hermione, holding it carefully as she looked down into the light brown liquid, some steam coming up from the glass hitting her nose. "Alright, I guess this is it." She brought the glass up to her mouth and took a sip, letting the warm liquid slide down the back of her throat. It didn't taste as bad as she had expected it to, and she lifted the glass to her mouth again taking a second sip before she set the glass back down on the desk. Then she closed her eyes waiting for something to happen as she leaned back against her pillows.

It took a few minutes before she felt anything, and when she did, it was an overwhelming feeling of calm. She forced herself to focus on the decision that she had to make, but her mind felt foggy and she was having trouble focusing on anything. She heard her name being called by someone, she thought the voice belonged to Hermione but she couldn't be sure. She tried to answer but couldn't find the words. Ginny felt someone gently shaking her, but she couldn't force herself to move. A few minutes later she felt herself drift to sleep, and she didn't even try to fight it.

When she woke up a little while later, she opened her eyes slowly. It took a minute before her eyes focused and she could see Hermione, Lissa, and Jessica, sitting on the bed next to her, watching her with a worried look. She lifted her hand to her forehead, rubbing it slightly before she pushed herself into a sitting position.

"Thank goodness!" Hermione said with a sight of relief.

"We thought you weren't going to wake up… we were just about to go get Professor McGongall," Jessica spoke up.

"How long was I asleep for?" Ginny asked pushing some hair out of her face and tucking it behind her ear.

"A little over a half hour," Hermione spoke up.

"Did it work?" Lissa asked Ginny.

"I don't know if it worked, but I know what I'm going to do," Ginny replied, a slight smile on her face. She couldn't tell if it was the potion that had made up her mind for her, or if she had decided for herself. It almost didn't matter to her what had made up her mind, she was just relieved that she had finally made a decision.

"Thank goodness!" Jessica said relieved. "What did you decide?"

* * *

Professor Snape sat down at his desk, and looked around the empty classroom for a moment before he turned his attention to the stack of essays sitting in front of him. He picked up his quill, and began to read the first essay, when he heard the door to the classroom shut. "I don't except late papers," he called out, not even looking up from what he was doing. Judging by the small stack of essays that sat in front of him, he had been expecting a few students to try and turn them in late, however he didn't think any would actually try and hand it in to him, most would simply leave them on his desk when he was out of the room. 

"I already turned mine in," Draco said as he walked to the front of the room and sat down on top of one of the desks in front of Professor Snape's.

At the sound of his voice, Snape looked up, and set the quill down on the stack of papers in front of him. "Is there something I can do for you Mister Malfoy?"

Draco shook his head, not even sure why he had come to the potions classroom. At his lack of response, Snape continued, "I see you received a visit from your Father this afternoon. No doubt in reference to the upcoming decision that must be made by you and Miss Weasley."

"The decision is hers," Draco responded.

Snape nodded, and folded his hands. "I see…is this so that you don't have to take a stand either with your Father or against him? Or do you simply not have an opinion?" When Draco didn't respond, Snape nodded again. "I'll assume that means the former. You do realize that there will come a point when you do have to decide… I am also going to assume, and correct me if I'm wrong, that this is about more than marrying or not marrying Ms. Weasley. A decision to marry her would reject everything your Father stands for, but if you decide not to, you are condoning, even accepting, everything that your Father stands for, and you are not ready to make that decision."

"And if I say nothing, then I haven't chosen either," Draco responded, following Snape's logic. He wasn't surprised that Snape had picked up on the reasoning behind his indecisiveness, but it still surprised him to hear it.

"There will come a time when you have to choose one or the other," he continued. "And if it's not now, it will come up again in the near future. You can not hide from it forever, Draco."

Draco frowned. "But I can avoid it for as long as possible."

Snape shook his head. "I don't recommend that. The best thing to do is to make a decision, and soon. And I suggest that you go somewhere and think about it… hiding in this classroom will not help you." He paused for a minute to see if Draco was going to say anything, and when he stayed silent, he picked up his quill again. "Although this one sided conversation is fascinating, I have some papers to grade, so if you would excuse me…"

Draco nodded and stood up, lost in thought. He had come there hoping that Snape would show him another option that he hadn't thought about, but he also had known that there weren't any other options. It had come time for him to choose a side, and Snape pointing that out had only caused the reality of the situation to hit him harder.

"Mister Malfoy," Snape called before he had the chance to open the door. "Just remember that whatever you choose, it won't be easy." Wordlessly Draco nodded and left the classroom closing the door behind him.


	17. A Discussion

Hello!

Thank you all for continuing to read and review….sorry it took me so long to get this up, I know I'm a bum…a very busy bum, but a bum none-the-less. I know that this is dragging the story on even more, and I apologize for that…I wrote this a looooooooooong time ago and never posted it, and I didn't want to just completely throw it away because I do like parts of it. My goal is to make the rest of the story go faster!

Oh and thank you to all of you who continue to read and review despite my mistakes- both grammatically and otherwise. I know that I'm not the most knowledgeable about Harry Potter, but I try, so thank you for overlooking or pardoning my faults!

Fye R. Fly

PS: As always, these characters belong to JK Rowling, I'm merely borrowing them for a while

Chapter 17

Ginny woke up the next morning, and groaned as the sun hit her face. She turned her head and buried it in her pillow, pulling the covers up, deciding that if she couldn't see the sun rise, morning hadn't come. However, the sun proved to be more persistent than Ginny had anticipated, and it only took a few more minutes for it to drive her out of bed.

Running her hand through her unruly hair, she sighed and walked into the bathroom, her eyes still adjusting to the light. When she came out, Jessica was sitting on her bed, two bagels on the bed in front of her. "I brought you breakfast…thought you might be hungry," she said sliding one across the bed closer to Ginny.

"Thanks," she said and tore off a piece and put it in her mouth before walking over to wardrobe to pull out some clothes.

"Sure," Jessica said and leaned back against the pillows. "There's someone waiting for you outside of the portrait hole."

Ginny pulled her shirt on and looked over at Jessica, obvious surprise registering on her face. "For me? Who is it?"

"A certain Slytherin," Jessica replied, and took a bite of her own bagel.

"Draco?"

"Mmhmm… no Slytherin would be waiting outside the common room unless he has to. What do you think he wants?"

"I don't know…the meeting with Mr. Bloor from the ministry is this afternoon, maybe he just wants to talk."

"Little late for that isn't it? You've already made up your mind."

"Yeah well…I can always change it," Ginny pointed out as she pulled her hair back into a ponytail. "I guess I should go down and see what he wants."

Jessica shrugged. "Up to you…if I were you, I'd let him sit out there and be hassled by the lady in the portrait for a little longer, but that's just me."

Ginny rolled her eyes. "You're so nice Jess."

"I try."

She shook her head, laughing slightly, and picked up the remaining half of her bagel. "I'll see you later…thanks for breakfast."

"Wait… Gin, aren't you at least going to tell me what you're going to do? I'm dying to know," Jessica said jumping off the bed and grabbing Ginny's arm before she could leave.

In response, Ginny shook her head. "I think Draco should be the first to know…it's only fair. You'll find out this afternoon after the meeting I promise."

Jessica sighed. "Well I better be the first person not in that meeting that you tell… deal?"

Ginny laughed. "Well, I don't know about the _first_. Chances are rumors will be flying around the school before the meeting is even over… you can't keep anything secret in Hogwarts."

"I never listen to the rumors anyway," Jess replied with a wave of her hand.

The remark caused Ginny to raise an eyebrow as she looked over at her friend skeptically. "That's probably because you're the one that usually starts them."

"Not always, sometimes it's Lissa," Jessica responded with a grin. "And someone has to start them, so why not me?"

"You're going to get yourself in trouble some day Jess," Ginny responded, and took another bite of her bagel. After swallowing, she continued, "Just promise you won't start any today… there will already be enough rumors flying around, I don't need anyone else talking about the situation- no matter what happens."

"I promise," Jessica said, and held up her wand, and then said seriously, "Wizard's Honor."

Ginny groaned. "Real funny Jess." She sat down on the bed and pulled her shoes on. "I better get going, see what Draco wants. I'll talk to you later."

"Good luck."

"Thanks," Ginny said, and opened the door only to run into Hermione, who was the door her hand up as if to knock. "Sorry!" she apologized, and stepped back to let her enter the room.

"It's okay," Hermione said, waving off the apology. "Ron is downstairs, he asked me if I would come get you…I told him he could just wait until you came downstairs, but you know how he is… he bugged me so much I finally agreed to come up and see if you were awake."

"I'm popular this morning aren't I?" Ginny remarked, and at Hermione's confused look, explained that Draco was waiting downstairs for her.

Hermione nodded. "Well I don't think Ron is going to let you leave without talking to him first." She paused for a minute before continuing, "I know that you already know what you want to do Ginny…and I think he's going to try and convince you to take the money. Just don't let him- or anyone else- pressure you into anything. Draco can be a jerk, but it is your choice."

"Great, the last thing I want to do is discuss this with Ron," Ginny said with a frown, as she tucked her hair behind her ear. "Between you guys and him, I really don't feel like talking about it anymore…"

"At least it'll be over this afternoon," Hermione pointed out.

"Yeah," Ginny said, looking down the staircase that led to the common room. "I'll talk to you guys later okay?"

Hermione and Jessica echoed a goodbye of their own, but the greeting fell on deaf ears as Ginny was already halfway down the stairs, and no longer visible to the two girls who were still standing in the doorway, watching after her a slightly perplexed look on their faces. "What do you think she's going to do?" Jessica asked.

"I don't know," Hermione responded with a slight shrug. "I'd like to think that she'd take the money and forget about it… I think if she had to make this choice weeks ago that's what she would do, but now I'm not so sure."

"You don't actually think she'd agree do you?" Jessica asked looking over at Hermione, who shrugged.

"No use in speculating, we'll know soon enough."

Jessica nodded, and sat down on her bed again. "Did you finish your charms essay yet…? I'm having some trouble with mine, I have about three more inches to write, and I have no idea what to say…maybe you could help me out a little?" She held up a tattered piece of parchment, ink stains clearly visible from where Hermione was standing. She looked at the piece of parchment skeptically and then back up at Jessica, who was giving her a broad smile. "Please?"

Ron glanced down at the chess board, and tapped his foot on the floor, in an impatient fashion. He glanced up at the staircase that led up to the girls dormitories, and then back down at the chess board in front of him. He rested his hand on his knee to stop his impatient foot, and after a long moment of deliberation moved one of the chess pieces.

Harry grinned as he saw that Ron's move left him open to win the game. Granted, he knew that Ron's playing was suffering because of his anxiety over the meeting that afternoon, not because his skill was progressing. However, this didn't stop Harry from taking his chance to win; it wasn't often that he beat Ron- fairly or otherwise. "Checkmate," Harry said, somewhat smugly and leaned back in his chair, as he looked across the board at Ron. "Hello….? Did you hear me? Checkmate…I win." He said, and frowned slightly when Ron didn't acknowledge his victory.

"Yeah yeah, I heard you," Ron responded finally, swatting Harry's hand out of his face. "You won, big deal."

"It's a big deal when you win, which is all the time," Harry retorted. "Why isn't it a big deal when I win?"

Ron shrugged, and started to put the pieces back where they belonged, checking his watch when he had finished. Only a few minutes had passed since he last checked it, but it felt like much longer.

"She'll be down in a few minutes," Harry said, noticing Ron look up towards the stairs again. "What are you so nervous about anyway? You knew this was going to happen."

"I know, but knowing that your sister is _forced_ to marry Malfoy, and knowing that she _chose_ to marry him are two very different things," Ron grumbled. "Want to play again?"

"Only if you'll actually play this time," he responded, and then shrugged before continuing, "She hasn't exactly said that she's going to marry him yet. It might not happen."

"If she does, I'll never be able to show my face to the other Gryffindors again," Ron lamented, more worried about what would happen to him than what would happen for his sister.

Hearing his comment, Harry rolled his eyes. "Well…" He started. "There are worse things that could happen."

"Like what?" Ron challenged. "I can't think of anything worse than being related to the Malfoys…"

Harry shrugged and made the first move on the chess board. "You-know-who could want you dead."

"Do you always have to bring that up?" Ron asked with a frown. "I can never win when you bring that up."

"That's the point," he responded, waiting for Ron to make his next move.

"The guys are already giving me a hard time…whoever heard of a Gryffindor marrying a Slytherin? It wasn't so bad when they thought that she was forced, but now…" He let his voice trail off, and frowned as he moved one of the chess pieces in front of him.

"You weren't this upset before, what happened?" Harry asked him. "You know better than to listen to rumors and gossip… most of it is just made up anyway."

"Yeah I know, it still bothers me though- not that I would tell Gin that."

Harry laughed. "I'm sure you don't have to tell her, it's written all over your face; you're upset."

Ron frowned and sat up a little straighter. "I am not," he said stubbornly. "I wish I could just tell her to not go through with it, but she'd never listen to me."

"Probably not," He agreed, "but as much as you don't like it- and I don't like it- it is her decision. Not that I like the idea any more than you do. Besides, she's probably already decided not to marry him anyway."

"I don't know about that," Ron said, taking his turn after Harry. "I've been hearing lots of rumors lately, and they have been spending a lot of time together. He's probably conned her into thinking he's a good guy or something. He probably has planned this all along or something."

Harry laughed. "I think you're giving Draco too much credit, Ron. Besides, I'm sure he doesn't like this anymore than you do—it would mean tarnishing his family's name."

"Good point," Ron said brightening. "Maybe the Malfoy pride will solve everything." He paused, and then for the first time that morning, he gave Harry a smile. "I never thought I'd say that."

"Hopefully you won't say it again," Harry commented, and moved another chess piece.

Ron was about to respond when he heard footsteps on the stairs, and looked up to see Ginny enter the common room. "Hermione said you wanted to talk to me," Ginny said as she paused next to the chess table.

Ron nodded, and cleared his throat slightly. "Yeah…I uh, just wanted to talk to you about what you're going to say at the meeting this afternoon."

Ginny sighed. "Ron, I really don't want to talk about this right now, I-"

"Just listen for a minute okay?" Ron said looking up at her. "I just don't want you to do anything that you're going to regret."

At his comment, Ginny frowned. "You don't even know what I've decided Ron. And if I have decided to marry Malfoy, which I'm not saying I have, but if I have, it's my decision."

"I know," Ron said looking over at Harry for help, who conveniently was staring down at the chess board intently, trying to avoid being pulled into the conversation. "I'm just not sure you thought it through. It was different when you were forced- you have a choice now. Think about Mom and Dad and what this will do to them…"

Ginny bristled slightly. "I know Ron," she snapped. "Don't you think I know that? I've thought it all through. I know the repercussions if I say yes, I don't need you reminding me every five minutes."

Ron sighed, "Fine. Just remember that he is a Malfoy and his father is a Death Eater. Everyone who has ever been in the Slytherin house has been evil. People don't change Gin- even if you want them to."

"I know…trust me, I haven't forgotten-and even if I had, I'm sure you'd remind me," she added dryly.

He nodded. "Alright well…whatever you decide I'll uh…"

"Support me?" Ginny offered.

"Yeah," He said nodding again, "Even if your decision is to marry that jerk."

"Thanks, I think," She said laughing and hugged her brother quickly, causing him to color slightly.

"You better not keep Malfoy waiting too long," Ron said pushing her away, embarrassed.

Ginny nodded. "Yeah, thanks Ron." She waved to Harry, and then walked out of the common room, letting the portrait close with a thud behind her.

"Well that wasn't exactly how I had pictured it," Ron said as he looked back down at the board.

"How exactly did you picture it?"

"Well…her announcing that she hates Draco's guts and telling me I was right all along," Ron admitted sheepishly.

"When has Ginny _ever_ told you, you were right?" Harry asked.

"Good point," Ron responded.

"Your move," Harry said, turning back to the unfinished chess game.

"This time I'm going to win," Ron responded, moving one of his pieces.

"It's about time," Draco commented when he saw her. "Do you know how long I've been out here?"

"Good morning to you too," she responded.

Draco rolled his eyes slightly. "If you consider standing here with her" he paused to glare up at the lady in the portrait that was guarding the door to the Gryffindor common room, "a good morning, then I guess it is." He paused, and then said, "I think we should talk."

"Sure, if you're actually going to talk," Ginny replied.

"Can we do it somewhere other than here?" Draco asked, glancing up and down the hallway before looking over at her. "I don't want her," he glanced pointedly at the Fat Lady in the portrait again, "listening to everything we say."

"He complained the entire time," the Fat Lady interjected. "I would have gone and gotten you up if I could just so that he would go away."

"I'm sorry," Ginny said apologetically to the lady in the portrait. "We'll go somewhere else, don't worry." She shot Draco a look and started down the hallway. "Where do you want to go?"

"Let's just walk around the quidditch pitch or something," Draco suggested.

"Sure."

Ginny followed him out of the castle and onto the quidditch pitch, walking the entire way in silence. She tucked a strand of red hair out of her face and looked over at him after they had walked for a few minutes. "So did you want to talk to me about something?"

"I think you know what I want to talk about," Draco said, looking over at her for a minute. "Have you made a decision?"

"I have, but why do you care? You said it was my choice- you refused to talk about it."

"I just want to have some idea of what is going to happen this afternoon. It does affect me too Ginny, it's only fair."

"What do you want to happen?" She asked curiously as they continued to walk.

"I told you it was your decision," Draco responded.

Ginny stopped walking and frowned. "Would you cut it out? You voice your opinions on everything else even when people don't want to hear them. What makes this any different? I would think that you would be jumping up and down with joy and throwing a party because you can weasel yourself out of this."

Draco stopped when he realized that she was no longer following her and looked back at her. "Malfoys do not jump and down."

Ginny rolled her eyes. "You are impossible. Do realize that every time you don't want to talk about something, you start talking about what Malfoys do and don't do?"

Draco scowled. "I don't think you realize how important this decision is for me."

"Of course I do. You'll be aligning yourself with the Weasleys, and a Gryffindor, which will shatter your reputation."

"And by aligning myself with the Weasleys I break years of family tradition, not to mention the fact that my Father will probably kill me," Draco said, continuing her train of thought. "This isn't just about getting married Ginny, and if you don't see that, you're blind."

"I'm not blind," she snapped, irritated. "I'd have just as many problems as you if I agreed to this. You're a Malfoy, which probably means that you have connections to You-Know-Who, and my family is one of the biggest supporters that Dumbledore has…how would it look if I married a Malfoy? Not to mention the fact that everyone in the Gryffindor house would hate me, and I'm sure my parents would be extremely disappointed even though they would never say it out loud. This isn't all about _you_ Draco. That's part of your problem- you always think about yourself, what is best for you, you don't stop and think about what would be best for other people."

"At least I don't always conform to what people want me to be," Draco shot back, Ginny's comment obviously having an effect on him. "You're so busy doing what other people want and worrying about what others want you to do that you don't even know what you want!"

"You're one to talk!" Ginny retorted. "You are the master of conformity. All you ever say is 'a Malfoy doesn't do this' or 'a Malfoy always does this' you are more defined by your last name than you'd like to admit!" Ginny could tell by the look on Draco's face that he was getting angrier the more she talked, but she kept going. "You're going to be just like your Father, because no matter how much you want to be different, you won't be able to go against the 'Malfoy way'."

"I might be a Malfoy but I am not like my Father. We both are very different, and if you knew me at all you would know that," Draco responded, trying to keep his voice even. A few students walking by had already stopped to look at the pair, wondering why they were standing on the quidditch pitch yelling at each other, but all too afraid to venture close enough to hear exactly what the argument was about.

Ginny sighed and fell silent for a minute. "Draco, I really don't want to fight," she pressed her fingers against her temple, and moved them in a slow motion, trying to stop the headache that she could feel starting. "If I don't know you as well as I think I do, then that should be more of a reason for you to tell me what you want to do," she reasoned.

Draco sighed, and looked around the quidditch pitch, and started walking as they talked, hoping to get rid of the prying eyes of the students who had stopped to listen to their argument. Ginny stopped a tree far enough from the quidditch pitch so that they wouldn't be bothered or bother the other students, but close enough that she could still see the castle. Sitting down, she leaned back against the trunk of the tree and looked over at him, waiting for an answer to her question.

When he didn't respond, Ginny looked down at the ground, and idly played with a blade of glass. After a long pause, she said softly, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that…" When he looked at her questioningly, she expanded, "the thing about your Father…I didn't mean that you were exactly like him."

Draco shrugged. "It's okay. It didn't bother me."

"Yeah, it did," she insisted. "I could tell."

Draco cleared his throat, and sat down on the ground next to her. "While this bonding with nature is nice and all, I think we need to make a decision. We don't have much longer."

"Right," Ginny said with a nod. "You still never told me what you thought."

"Neither did you," Draco pointed out. "And I believe I asked you first."

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Fine then." She sat up a little straighter, and looked over at him, "I decided that maybe it wasn't such a bad idea to get married…" She looked down at her hands, not wanting to look him in the eye. "I mean it's not ideal, but it seems to get us both of out of a situation we'd rather not be in… you'd get a chance to get away from your Father, and I'd get a chance to be away from my family…or at least out of their shadow. And besides, this must have happened for a reason, right?" She now looked up at Draco, hoping that he would reaffirm her decision.

Draco looked at her for a minute, and then nodded slightly. "So you've made your decision?"

"Well, yes," she responded, somewhat hesitantly. "But I'm still waiting to hear what you think."

"I think you made your decision," Draco said, looking into her eyes for a minute before looking away. "If we don't head back, we won't be back in time for the meeting."

Ginny watched him for a minute, and then nodded. "Right, we wouldn't want to be late."


End file.
